The island dispute between China and Japan is taking many twists and turns, more like a mind-game of chess where for every move by China there is a counter move by Japan or a subtle move by the US. China has even resorted to gimmicks like ads in international newspapers, but the underlying point is, no one is actually resolving the issue by engaging in a meaningful dialogue.
Some agencies are viewing the escalated row as an international propaganda war. Let’s retrace the action so far, China held anti-Japan demonstrations in China and overseas outside Japanese embassies. Some of these protests were peaceful and others turned violent enough to disrupt normal life and affected businesses. They even boycotted Japanese goods as well as published expensive newspaper advertisements in Daily Times, an English-language daily in Pakistan, the Washington Post and the New York Times in the US.
Japan took the cake by purchasing the islands to nationalize them! If that isn’t enough, every move by the US Navy and army in the Asia Pacific is being viewed by China as a potential threat. The U.S. plans to send in their nuclear submarine USS Olympia to the Philippine port city of Subic Bay. This is a former U.S. Army base, and it plans to deploy two nuclear-powered aircraft carriers near the Senkaku Islands. This of course in not going down too well with China.
[Via Donga]