Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2013 February 6 - 12 TOP3 [TERRITORIAL ISSUE]

Shii proposes three measures for solution to Senkaku problem

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo in the JCP 6th Central Committee Plenum on February 9 proposed three principles for the solution to the dispute over the Senkaku Islands with China.

In his report to the CC Plenum on behalf of the JCP Executive Committee, the chair said, “An unexpected serious contingency and military conflict must be prevented at all costs. To negotiate with each other in a cool-headed and rational manner is the only way to solve the Senkaku problem.”

As the measures needed for the Japanese and the Chinese governments to settle the dispute, Shii suggested that the two governments should admit to the existence of the territorial dispute and make efforts to bring a solution through diplomatic negotiations in a calm manner; severely refrain from taking forceful and military measures for changing the current status; and work hard to keep the bilateral dispute from affecting the two nations’ economic relations as well as relations at the level of people and culture.

Shii referred to the fact that the Japanese side considers getting public workers permanently stationed on the disputed islands and shows Japan’s intention to strengthen its military capability and the Japan-U.S. military alliance by taking advantage of the issue. “These moves will impair the settlement of the issue through calm and diplomatic negotiations and should be prohibited,” he added.

Criticizing entering of the Chinese government’s vessels and aircraft into Japanese territorial waters and airspace, Shii said, “Whatever the reasons, it is unforgivable in today’s world for the Chinese side to try to change the current conditions of an area effectively controlled by another nation by forcible means.”