Cooperation offers best chance of escape from Diaoyu dilemma

Mr. Shintaro Ishihara,

I am writing this open letter to you in response to your attempts to "purchase" the Diaoyu Islands this April. As a fellow alumnus of Hitotsubashi University, I feel very sorry about the consequences that your actions have caused, especially around the time of the 40th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan.

We talked in 2009. The content of the dialogue was published on the official publication of Japan-China Science, Technology and Culture Center.

In that dialogue, you have mentioned that issues of global warming instead of arms races should be given priority in the 21st century. Sovereignty must be respected, but we should avoid wars caused by the disputes over sovereignty.

According to media reports, it seems that your distrust of China has increased again after the Diaoyu Islands collision in 2010. Recently, you have also mentioned that China has implemented a plan to overthrow Japan's actual control of the Diaoyu Islands. However, this is far from the truth. If Japan unilaterally enhances its control on the ground, China will certainly take countermeasures.

You proposed that Tokyo can purchase the Diaoyu Islands and then deliver it to the country, on the condition of setting up lighthouses and other facilities on the Diaoyu Islands. Japan's unilateral actions will inevitably provoke a backlash from China, and this must be avoided.

I believe China and Japan should engage in dialogue and jointly construct facilities that meet the requirements of the 21st century.

Japan's unreasonable argument that no diplomatic problems over the Diaoyu Islands issue exist will narrow the diplomatic space available to the country.

Japan will benefit from a stable relationship with a rising China. In the past century, Japan maintained its top ranking in Asia. However, during the transition period of great shift in relative powers, Japan should take a long-term-oriented policy toward China.

The attitude toward the disputed Diaoyu Islands can be seen as a test.

If China and Japan could really set aside the dispute over sovereignty and jointly construct facilities, manage the surrounding waters and explore resources on the seabed, then the previous agreement made with China over joint exploration of oil fields in the East China Sea could be launched immediately.

You have collected over 1.3 billion yen ($16.35 million) in public donations for your project. All this has had a certain effect in whipping up nationalism among the Japanese.

Now the situation has come to a point of mutual provocation stimulated by media coverage. What is worrisome is that this kind of situation has been escalating endlessly.

If tension over the Diaoyu Islands intensifies, it will provoke memories of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95 among Chinese. If China had not lost that war to Japan, the Diaoyu Islands would never have been ceded to Japan.

If the scars of history are irritated over the Diaoyu Islands dispute, the feelings of Chinese people toward Japan will inevitably worsen, with calamitous potential consequences for a Japanese economy heavily dependent on China.

The best for both China and Japan is to set aside sovereignty disputes and jointly explore resources, as you previously agreed.

(By Ling Xingguang, a professor of international politics at the University of Fukui in Japan)