Daily Lessons from Life 27 September 2012 - China slams Japan PM's "obstinate persistence"

"China slams Japan PM's "obstinate persistence" - AFP 27 September 2012

BEIJING: China criticised Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's "obstinate persistence" on Thursday after he insisted there could be no compromise with Beijing on the ownership of disputed islands.

"China is extremely dissatisfied with and sternly opposes the Japanese leader's obstinate persistence in his incorrect views regarding the Diaoyu islands," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement.

Noda said on Wednesday that a disputed archipelago in the East China Sea that China knows as the Diaoyu islands and Japan calls the Senkaku, is "an integral part" of Japanese territory "in the light of history and of international law."

"It is very clear and there are no territorial issues as such. Therefore there cannot be any compromise that could mean any setback from this basic position. I have to make that very clear," Noda told reporters at the UN General Assembly.

China has made much the same statements in defending its own claim to the islands.

China and Japan are locked in an escalating confrontation over the islands that triggered street protests across China and saw attacks on Japanese businesses in China.

Relations between the countries plummeted to their lowest in years after Tokyo announced on September 11 that it had completed a deal to buy three of the islands from their private owner.

China said on Wednesday that Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told his counterpart Koichiro Gemba at the United Nations that Japan was guilty of "severely infringing" its sovereignty by purchasing the disputed islands."

Gamesmanship and posturing that could lead to an unfortunate and unwanted conflict of the highest order in Asia. Will the politicians know when to pull back? They think they know and that they can. Hopefully they are right about it.

Lessons for me are:

1. go to the international court to sort this out. Of course it is also quite obviously that some nations do not respect international laws when it is not to their advantage. Back to the basic. Are the nations involved sincere about resolving it peacefully or just rely on some of their own ancient maps and myths?;

2. will it lead to a full scale war even if there were some accidental or unintentional collision of ships in that crowded area between the tiny islands? Probably not as there are too much at stake for the nations and the world. Some big nations will try to mediate. Maybe!;

3. the worst case scenario is something terrible happened in the potential combatants' countries and each need to divert the attention of their people to a common enemy will full scale war start. No sign of it yet though one of the countries obviously have some pressing political issues to sort out.

May both nations live in peace. For Asia and the world's sake!