The China-Japan Conflict Over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands : Useful Rivalry

"This book examines the foreign and security policies adopted by China and Japan since the 1970s in their competition over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea.? It charts the development of a dispute that has become a potential flashpoint for conflict between the two countries. The book explains that while increasing nationalism in both China and Japan helps to fuel and sustain the dispute, a key factor is that the leaderships in both countries find competition over the islands to be a convenient vehicle supporting their wider approach to foreign and security policy, which is becoming increasingly assertive and potentially belligerent."--Provided by publisher Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations -- Author biography -- 1 Contested territory -- The dispute: what it is and why it matters -- An expression of competitive politics in East Asia -- Mining data on the dispute -- Legal, historical and geographical evidence brought to sovereignty claim -- Japan's official position -- The PRC's official position -- The US official position -- 2 Neoclassical realism and managed strategic confrontation -- Theorising foreign policy -- Neoclassical realism -- China and Japan as 'useful rivals': managed strategic confrontation -- A focus on nationalism -- Foreign and security policy actors -- 3 The islands' economic and strategic value -- Economic value of the islands: EEZ and resource exploitation -- Strategic value of the islands -- The islands and China's growing maritime power -- From taoguang yanghui to yousuo zuowei -- The islands and Japan's shift towards greater activism -- 4 The Cold War phase of the dispute -- 1970s: scrambling for oil or global recognition? -- The beginning of the dispute -- The islands and the reversion of Okinawa (1971) -- The islands, diplomatic normalisation (1972) and the Treaty of Peace and Friendship (1978) -- Analysis: the islands are neither a priority, nor are they in reach -- The islands, US ambivalence and the Taiwan issue -- The islands and peripheral Chinese nationalism -- 1980s: bilateral tensions and quiet around the islands -- 5 The post-Cold War phase of the dispute -- 1990 and 1996 cycles of the islands crisis: bilateral restraint -- 2004-2005 cycle of the islands crisis: Beijing sanctions limited domestic activism -- 2010 cycle: the issue becomes highly politicised -- 2012 cycle: Japan's transfer of ownership -- Crisis-management mechanisms, the 4-point agreement (2014) and the resumption of high-level communication 6 Symbolic value of the islands -- An endless sporting event: the islands and national identity -- 'It's PR [Public Relations]': the islands and diplomacy -- 7 Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index