China and Japan are engaged in a nasty diplomatic fight about which country owns some uninhabited islands in the East China Sea. Taiwan also claims ownership. The islands are called "Senkaku" in Japanese and "Daioyu" in Chinese. A few weeks ago the captain of a fishing boat refused orders to stop issued Japanese coast guard cutter. He whacked into the cutter it several times, before finally surrendering. Damage is minimal. The ship and crew were released but the Japanese are still holding the captain. The Chinese government is cancelling meetings, thousands of Chinese tourists have canceled trips to Japan, and there have been a few incidents of violence such as bricks thrown through the windows of a Japanese school in China.
Anyway, the real story behind the story is oil. Those islands have been disputed for a long time but no one cared until the 1970s and the development of offshore drilling. Now it has become a huge issue. The Chinese and Japanese have some joint oil drilling projects going, but I do not think they are close to the Senkaku Islands. To quote some on-line journalist who may or may not know what he is talking about: ". . . three nearby gas and oil fields are suspected of holding seven trillion cubic feet of natural gas and more than 100 billion barrels of oil. That’s enough to fuel the Chinese or Japanese economy for nearly 50 years." That has to be an exaggeration! Okay, I do not know whether that is true or not, but it is clear that many people think it is true. Needless to say, oil and energy are the story behind many other political and military events, and much of 20th century history. See the book "The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power." In my book, I bent over backwards trying to be fair and non accusative, writing: ". . . The Iraq war may not be 'a war for oil' as some critics charge, but oil is surely a proximate cause. If the Middle East did not have oil, the U.S. would not be embroiled there." - Jed
