On 11th October, Chinese Ambassador in Slovenia Mr. ZHANG Xianyi published an article about Diaoyu island in a Slovenian leading newspaper, Dnevnik. Below are the English and Slovene versions of the article:

 

English:

THE ESSENSE OF DIAOYU ISLAND ISSUE:

JAPAN'S ATTEMPT OF CHALLENGING THE OUTCOMES OF THE VICTORY OF THE WORLD ANTI-FACIST WAR

Recently, the dispute regarding Diaoyu Island has caused the tension between the relations of China and Japan, and generated a lot of media coverage around the world. The root cause of Diaoyu Island issue is Japan's outright denial of the outcomes of the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War and grave challenge to the post-war international order.

Diaoyu Island and its affiliated islands with a total landmass of approximately 5.69 square kilometers are located to the northeast of China's Taiwan Island, and are affiliated to the Taiwan Island. These aforementioned islands have been China's sacred territory since ancient times. It has been approved by a large amount of historical documents that the Diaoyu Islands were first discovered, named and exploited by the Chinese people. As early as in the 16th century of the Ming Dynasty, China has already exercised the jurisdiction over Diaoyu Island and its affiliated islands and incorporated these islands into the map of Chinese maritime territory for coastal defense.

In 1895, as the Qing government's defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War was all but certain, Japan illegally occupied the Diaoyu Island and its affiliated islands. After that, Japan forced the Qing government to sign the unequal Treaty of Shimonoseki and cede to Japan "the island of Formosa (Taiwan), together with all islands appertaining or belonging to the said island of Formosa".

The Cario Declaration and the Potsdam Declaration, which were issued by China, the United States and Britain during the Second World War, clearly prescribed about the postwar disposal of Japan: ‘... all the territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such as Manchuria, Formosa, and the Pescadores, shall be restored to the Republic of China. Japan will also be expelled from all other territories which she has taken by violence and greed.’ After WWII, China recovered the territories invaded and occupied by Japan such as Taiwan and the Penghu Islands in accordance with the above mentioned documents and Japanese Instrument of Surrender. According to international law, the Diaoyu Island and its affiliated islands have already been returned to China.

In 1951, the Treaty of Peace with Japan (commonly known as the Treaty of San Francisco, a treaty partial in nature) was signed between Japan, the United States and other countries, placing the Ryukyu Islands (known as Okinawa today) under the trusteeship of the United States. In 1953, the United States Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands arbitrarily expanded its jurisdiction to include the Diaoyu Island and its affiliated islands, which are in fact Chinese territories. In 1971, Japan and the United States signed the Okinawa Reversion Agreement, which arbitrarily included the Diaoyu Islands in the territories and territorial waters to be reversed to Japan. The Chinese government has, from the very beginning, firmly opposed and never acknowledged such backroom deals between Japan and the United States concerning Chinese territories.

During the negotiations on the normalization of China-Japan relations in 1972 and on the signing of the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Peace and Friendship in 1978, the then leaders of the two countries, acting in the larger interest of China-Japan relations, reached important understanding and common ground on "leaving the issue of the Diaoyu Island to be resolved later". This opened tremendous progress in China-Japan relations and stability and tranquility in East Asia in the following 40 years.

However, on 10 September 2012, the Japanese government announced the "purchase" of the Diaoyu Island and its affiliated Nan Xiaodao and Bei Xiaodao and the implementation of the so-called "nationalization" of the islands. This constitutes a gross violation of China's sovereignty over its own territory and seriously tramples on historical facts and international jurisprudence. This will give the Chinese People and the Asian Peoples causes for concern, where exactly Japan is heading to?

Europe has lived through two world wars, but how could European people managed to establish European Union after WWII war and lead to solidarity and restoration? A most important reason is that the postwar Germany and Italy all eradicated the Nazi and Fascist thoughts and paid respects to the results of WWII including the demarcating and delineating of postwar boundaries. But many European people will probably never imagine that, due to the Cold War, Japan has never thoroughly exposed and criticized its fascism invasion history in WWII. On the contrary, a large number of war criminals held public offices after WWII. Japan is still beautifing and disguising its WWII invasion history in the official textbook of the Primary and Secondary schools. Regardless of the strong objection from most Asian countries, many important political figures of Japan including their Prime Ministers frequently paid visits to Yashukuni Shrine where many Class A war criminals were honoured and worshiped. Could the European people imagine that the Germany chancellor to present flowers to the tombs of the Nazi war criminals? Is it possible to imagine that the German government is trying to control the land once invaded by Nazi army in WWII?

From this we can see that, the operations of Japanese government on Diaoyu Island issue is not an accidental phenomenon. The one-sided decision of so called 'island purchase' adopted by Japanese government not only seriously violated and trampled on the sovereignty of China, but also publicly denied the victory results of the world anti-fascist war, and imposed a critical challenge to the postwar world order based on the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation, as well as the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. In essence, Japan is seeking to enable the continuity and legality of its outcomes of colonial policy and militarism invasion. This behaviour is similar to the money laundering of the Mafia with the same purpose to legalize the things illegally acquired. The international community should strongly opposed such attempts from Japan.

Finally, we need to emphasize that, the Chinese government has always attached importance to developing relations with Japan and advocated solving the disputes by negotiation. We hope the Japanese government can clearly understand the situation, give up all the behaviour that may violate the sovereignty of China and stop challenging the victory results of anti-fascist war, bring the China-Japan relations back to the general direction of peace and friendship.

 

 

Slovene:

Bistvo spora zaradi otoka Diaoyu:

Japonska poskuša postaviti pod vprašaj izid druge svetovne vojne in zmago protifašistične strani

Nedavno je spor glede otoka Diaoyu povzročil napetosti v odnosih med Kitajsko in Japonsko, tako da so mediji o tem precej poročali. Temeljni vzrok je japonsko popolno zanikanje izida svetovne vojne, v kateri je zmagala antifašistična stran, in nevarno postavljanje pod vprašaj povojne mednarodne ureditve.

Otok Diaoyu in po njem imenovano otočje s celotno površino okoli 5,69 kvadratnega kilometra ležita severovzhodno od kitajskega otoka Tajvan in sta del Tajvanskega otočja. Omenjeni otoki so bili od davnih časov neločljivo povezani s Kitajsko. Številni zgodovinski dokumenti dokazujejo, da so otočje Diaoyu najprej odkrili, imenovali in izkoriščali Kitajci. Vsaj v 16. stoletju, ko je vladala dinastija Ming, je Kitajska, gledano mednarodnopravno, že imela oblast nad Diaoyujem in po njem imenovanim otočjem, tako da so bili ti otoki vključeni na kitajski pomorski zemljevid za obrambo obale.

Leta 1895, ko je bila vlada dinastije Qing pred porazom v prvi kitajsko-japonski vojni, je Japonska nezakonito zasedla Diaoyu in okoliške otoke. Nato je Japonska vlado dinastije Qing prisilila, da je v Šimonoseki podpisala nepravičen sporazum in Japonski odstopila "otok Formoza (Tajvan) z vsem otoki, ki otoku Formoza pripadajo".

Kairska in potsdamska deklaracija, ki so ju sprejele Kitajska, ZDA in Velika Britanija med drugo svetovno vojno, sta glede določil o povojni Japonski jasni: "… vsa ozemlja, ki jih je Japonska ukradla Kitajski, kot so Mandžurija, Formoza in Pescadores, bodo vrnjena Republiki Kitajski. Japonska se bo morala odpovedati tudi vsem drugim ozemljem, ki si jih je nasilno in pohlepno prilastila." Po drugi svetovni vojni je Kitajska ponovno pridobila oblast nad ozemlji, ki jih je zasedla Japonska, kot sta Tajvan z okoliškimi otoki in otočje Penghu, kar je bilo v skladu z zgoraj omenjenimi dokumenti in aktom japonske kapitulacije. Po mednarodnem pravu je torej otok Diaoyu z vsem istoimenskim otočjem že vrnjen Kitajski.

Leta 1951 so mirovni sporazum z Japonsko (znan kot sporazum iz San Francisca, po svoji naravi pristranski) podpisale Japonska, ZDA in druge države, s čimer je otočje Ryukyu (danes znano kot Okinava) prišlo pod skrbništvo ZDA. Leta 1953 je ameriška civilna uprava otočja Ryukyu samovoljno razširila svojo jurisdikcijo tako, da je vključila otok Diaoyu in njemu pripadajoče otočje, kar je dejansko kitajsko ozemlje. Leta 1971 sta Japonska in ZDA podpisali okinavski sporazum o vrnitvi ozemlja, ki je v vrnitev Japonski samovoljno vključil otoke Diaoyu s teritorialnimi vodami. Kitajska vlada je od vsega začetka nasprotovala takšnim kravjim kupčijam med Japonsko in ZDA, ki zadevajo kitajska ozemlja, in jih ni nikoli priznala.

Med pogajanji o normalizaciji kitajsko-japonskih odnosov leta 1972 in ob podpisu kitajsko-japonskega mirovnega in prijateljskega sporazuma leta 1978 so takratni voditelji obeh držav, ki so si prizadevali za dolgoročno dobre odnose med Kitajsko in Japonsko, dosegli visoko raven medsebojnega razumevanja in skupno stališče, ki je "vprašanje otoka Diaoyu prepuščalo poznejšemu reševanju". To je omogočilo izjemen napredek v kitajsko-japonskih odnosih pa tudi stabilnost in mir v vzhodni Aziji v naslednjih 40 letih.

Vendar je 10. septembra 2012 japonska vlada napovedala, da si bo "prilastila" otok Diaoyu in njemu pripadajoča otoka Nan Xiaodao in Bei Xiaodao, pri čemer bo izvedla tako imenovano nacionalizacijo otokov. To pomeni hudo kršitev kitajske suverenosti nad njenim ozemljem ter nevarno teptanje zgodovinskih dejstev in mednarodnega prava. Ob vsem tem so se Kitajci in drugi azijski narodi začeli zaskrbljeno spraševati, kam gre Japonska.

Kako je Evropejcem, potem ko so šli skozi dve svetovni vojni, uspelo zgraditi Evropsko unijo ter preiti v obdobje solidarnosti in obnove? Najpomembnejši razlog je, da sta povojna Nemčija in Italija izkoreninili nacistično in fašistično miselnost ter spoštovali izid in posledice druge svetovne vojne, vključno z novimi povojnimi mejami. Številni Evropejci si najbrž danes težko predstavljajo, da Japonska zaradi hladne vojne nikoli ni zares odločno izpostavila in kritizirala svoje fašistične napadalne politike med drugo svetovno vojno. Nasprotno, številni vojni zločinci so po drugi svetovni vojni opravljali javne funkcije. Poleg tega Japonska v uradnih osnovnošolskih in srednješolskih učbenikih še vedno olepšuje in zakriva pravo resnico o svoji napadalni politiki med drugo svetovno vojno. Kljub ostrim protestom večine azijskih držav pa veliko pomembnih političnih osebnosti na Japonskem, vključno s predsedniki vlad, pogosto obiskuje svetišče Jasukuni, kjer častijo številne najhujše vojne zločince. Ali si Evropejci lahko predstavljajo, da bi nemški kancler položil cvetje na grob nacističnih vojnih zločincev? In ali si je mogoče predstavljati, da bi nemška vlada poskušala nadzirati ozemlje, ki ga je med drugo svetovno vojno zasedla nacistična vojska?

Tako lahko uvidimo, da ravnanje japonske vlade glede otoka Diaoyu ni naključen pojav. Ne le da enostranska odločitev o "prilastitvi otoka", ki ga je sprejela japonska vlada, krši in tepta suverenost Kitajske, ampak tudi javno zanika zmago protifašistične strani med drugo svetovno vojno in vsiljuje kritičen izziv povojni svetovni ureditvi, ki temelji na kairski in potsdamski deklaraciji pa tudi na ciljih in načelih ustanovne listine ZN. V bistvu si Japonska prizadeva za kontinuiteto in zakonitost rezultatov svoje kolonialne politike in vojaške agresije. Tako vedenje je podobno mafijskemu pranju denarja z namenom, da se legalizira stvari, ki so bile nezakonito pridobljene. Mednarodna skupnost bi se morala takšnim poskusom Japonske ostro zoperstaviti.

Na koncu je treba poudariti, da je kitajska vlada vedno dajala velik pomen razvijanju dobrih odnosov z Japonsko in je zagovarjala stališče, da je treba vse spore reševati s pogajanji. Upamo, da je japonska vlada zmožna jasno razumeti situacijo, da bo opustila ravnanje, ki lahko krši suverenost Kitajske, in da bo prenehala postavljati pod vprašaj zmago protifašistične strani v drugi svetovni vojni ter kitajsko-japonske odnose privedla nazaj na pot miru in prijateljstva.