日中関係

The Competing Claims

The claims of China and Taiwan have a similar basis.
China asserts that fishermen from Taiwan used the islands for fishing activities since the time of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).
Journeys by Chinese envoys to Okinawa during this period are cited, for these envoys sometimes recorded that the western boundary of the Ryukyu islands (Okinawa is the largest island of the Ryukyus)
lay at a point east of the Senkakus (Diaoyus).
In 1893, the Dowager Empress of China, Tze Shih, made a grant of the islands to one Sheng Hsuan Wai, who collected medical herbs on them.
However China never established a permanent settlement of civilians or military personnel on the islands, and apparently did not maintain permanent naval forces in adjacent waters.

Japan did not claim the islands until the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895.
On January 14, 1895, the Emperor approved an Imperial Ordinance annexing the Senkakus to Japan.
In May 1895, Japan and China signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki ending the war.
Under the Treaty, China ceded Taiwan (Formosa)
to Japan "together with all the islands appertaining or belonging to the said islands of Formosa.
" The Treaty did not mention the Senkakus, and the islands were not discussed during the negotiating sessions.
Japan has claimed from this that its incorporation of the Senkakus (Diaoyus)
was an act apart from the Sino-Japanese War.
China argues that Japan used its victory in the war to annex the islands.
China also argues that the intent of the allied declarations at Cairo and Potsdam during World War II was to restore to China territories taken from it by Japan through military aggression.

U.S. Administration of the Islands, 1953-1971

U.S. administration of the islands began in 1953 as a result of the 1951 Treaty of Peace with Japan.
The Treaty did not mention the Senkakus (Diaoyus), but it referred to other islands that had reverted to Chinese control or which China claimed.
These included Taiwan, the Pescadores, the Spratlys, and the Paracels.
Article 3 gave the United States sole powers of administration of "Nansei Shoto south of 29 north latitude (including the Ryukyu and the Daito Islands) .... " In 1953, the U.S.
Civil Administration of the Ryukyus issued U.S.
Civil Administration of the Ryukyus Proclamation 27 (USCAR 27), which defined the boundaries of "Nansei Shoto south of 29 degrees north latitude" to include the Senkakus.
At the time of the signing of the Okinawa Reversion Treaty, several State Department officials asserted that following the signing of the Japan Peace Treaty, "Nansei Shoto south of 29 degrees north latitude" was "understood by the United States and Japan to include the Senkaku Islands.
" Moreover, during the period of U.S.
administration, the U.S.
Navy established firing ranges on the islands and paid an annual rent of $11,000 to Jinji Koga, the son of the first Japanese settler of the islands.

Inclusion of the Senkakus (Diaoyus)
in the Okinawa Reversion Treaty