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Analogy:  Suppose a robber with many armed men came to your house and stole your baby sister while you were a small child and your parents were old, frail, and powerless to fight against the robber..  Then many years later you grew up to become a strong young man and you go to confront the robber to get back your sister who rightfully belongs to you and your family.  Sensing that he may no longer be able to defeat you, the robber then enlists a powerful partner to try to keep the stolen girl.  Furthermore, the robber and his partner would cry wolf to the world making accusations that you are trying to steal their daughter.  I am sure that you will say that this is totally unjust.  Shame to the robber.  Shame to his powerful partner because he should know better than to intervene.  And shame to the mass media who portrays you as the villain, and portrays the robber and his partner as upright citizens.

This article explains why the above example is a good analogy to the controversy over the Diaoyu Islands (called Senkaku Islands by Japan).  In this analogy, China in the late 19^th century is the defenseless family with old and frail parents, the Diaoyu Islands is the baby sister, Japan is the armed robber, the U.S. is the powerful partner of Japan, and modern China is the strong young man.

As explained previously [1], the evidence is overwhelming that from a historical, legal, or geographical point of view, the Diaoyu Islands have been part of Taiwan, China for many centuries.  For example, ancient Japanese maps showed these islands as part of China.  Even non-biased Japanese scholars who have studied this part of history conclude that in the late 19th century, Japan was engaged in a secret plan to steal these islands from China.  That plan became reality when a strong Japan defeated a weak China in the First Sino-Japanese War, 1894-1895, and as a result Taiwan was given to Japan.

After the end of WWII when Taiwan was returned back to China, the Diaoyu Islands should have been returned to China also.  But Japan never gave up its plan to steal the Diaoyu Islands and enlisted the help of a powerful partner, the U.S.  After the Chinese Communist Party won the civil war in China, the U.S. has consistently adopted an antagonistic policy to surround, contain, and weaken China.   The U.S. was more than willing to collude with Japan to steal the Diaoyu Islands from China.  As explained in Reference 1 and also in a later article [2],  the U.S. is not just an innocent bystander, but has a long-involved complicity in this dispute, including on Christmas day 1953 the U.S. unilaterally included the Diaoyu Islands as part of the Ryukyu Islands to be handed over to Japan its administrative rights. [3]

As the post-1949 China became stronger and stronger, she began to exert her sovereignty claims over her territory, including the Diaoyu Islands.  Then Japan and the U.S. started crying wolf and have been blaming China as the aggressor.

“Forgotten Holocaust” Foreign Policy of the U.S.:  When Iris Chang wrote her award-winning best-selling book The Rape of Nanking, she gave it a subtitle “The Forgotten Holocaust of WWII.”  Most people have heard of the horrific atrocities that the German Nazis inflicted on the Jewish people, but few people had even heard of the rape of Nanking and other equally horrific atrocities that the Japanese Imperial Army inflicted on the Chinese and other Asian people, such as sex slaves (euphemistically called comfort women by Japan), widespread use of biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction, vivisection on live human beings, and slave labor. On many occasions top Japanese government leaders have questioned the very existence of the Nanking Massacre and sex slaves, sometimes even claiming that the victim countries invented them.  The Japanese prime ministers and other high-ranking government leaders frequently visit and pay tribute at the Yasukuni Shrine where 14 Class A convicted and executed Japanese war criminals are enshrined.  The U.S., who suffered the devastating surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and whose soldiers suffered the Bataan Death March at the hands of the Japanese soldiers, and many American POWs labored and died as slave laborers for Japan, seems to have gotten amnesia as though the Forgotten Holocaust never occurred.  The U.S. is partnering with Japan and using Japan as its front-line pawn to implement its antagonistic policy to surround, contain, and weaken China, her former ally during WWII.

Such “Forgotten Holocaust” foreign policy by the U.S. is wrong and is also not in the best interests of the U.S. and the American people. While acknowledging that the sovereignty of the Diaoyu Islands is undecided, the U.S. government at the same time claims that the U.S.-Japan Mutual Defense Treaty is applicable over the Diaoyu Islands.  Willingly or unwillingly, the U.S. government doesn’t seem to mind to be dragged by Japan into a potential war in the East China Sea that it has no moral or legal reasons to be involved.  For the shake of justice, world peace, as well as the welfare of the American people, the U.S. must abandon this “Forgotten Holocaust” foreign policy.

The U.S. and Japan have been crying wolf because a stronger China that can now defend itself is claiming sovereignty over territories that were stolen from her and rightfully belong to her.  Together with the Western mass media that closely align with the U.S. government policy, they accuse China as being aggressive, power hungry, and wants to exercise hegemony over Southeast Asia.

Historical Facts:  But let us look at the facts.  The truth is:  Sixty eight years have elapsed since the end of WWII, Japan still has not acknowledged and apologized for the massive, inhumane atrocities she committed all over Asia during WWII; Japan has frequently denied the very existence of many of these atrocities; Japan’s current Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has tried to deny Japan’s aggression during WWII by giving a new interpretation of the word “aggression;” Japan has rewritten their textbooks so that generations of Japanese have little knowledge of what really happened during WWII;  Japan is trying to revise their pacifist constitution that was part of the treaty ending WWII; Japan is reviving Japanese militarism and imperialism that caused so much pain and suffering all over the world, and is still trying to keep their stolen Chinese territories.

And the truth is that without any legal justification, the U.S. on December 25, 1953 unilaterally included the Diaoyu Islands as part of the Ryukyu Islands and in 1972 handed over the administrative rights of these islands to Japan.  It is the U.S. who is adopting the ambiguous and inflammatory policy stating that although the sovereignty of the Diaoyu Islands is undecided, these islands are under the U.S.-Japan Mutual Defense Treaty.  It is the U.S. who has large military bases all around China, including those in Okinawa and other parts of Japan, South Korea, Philippines, as well as military troops in many other parts of Asia.  It is the U.S.’s huge 7th Fleet that is patrolling the waters all around China, with 60 to 70 ships and submarines, 200 to 300 aircrafts, and approximately 40,000 sailors and marines, and participated in 80 maritime exercises and conducted 192 port visits throughout the Indo-Asia-Pacific region just in 2013.  Is it so difficult to understand why China would want to build up its navy (which currently has only one old aircraft carrier she purchased from Ukraine in 1998) and other parts of its armed forces?  Is it so difficult to understand why China would declare a new Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) around the area over the Diaoyu Islands when the U.S. and Japan also have ADIZs in many parts of the world? [4]

Impacts on American Public Opinion from Distortion of Historical Facts:  The large majority of statements and policy documents from the U.S. government are so antagonistic toward China.  The U.S. and the Western mass media are always attacking and blaming China on many fronts, including cyber espionage and currency manipulation.  But it is the U.S. who has done the most cyber espionage by far, not only on her adversaries, but also on her allies and her own citizens.  It is the U.S. who has done the most currency manipulation by printing billions and billions of dollars of paper money.   Yes, China is now the world’s second largest economy and is a major competitor to the U.S.  But is it good for the U.S. and world peace to adopt a policy that is based on surrounding, containing, and weakening China, instead of a policy that seeks ways in which the two countries can cooperate or compete in a fair way?  Which approach will allow the world to better solve the many pressing social, political, economic, and environmental problems facing humanity, and which approach will lead to more stability and peace around the world?

The Western mass media must also revisit their whole policy toward editorials, reporting, and analysis.  It should exercise its prerogative as a free press, instead of just blindly following the policies of the governments of the U.S. and other major Western countries by echoing their China bashing.  Its editorial page should publish more submissions of counter points of view.  Someone asked me whether the March 2, 2014 editorial of the New York Times “Mr. Abe’s Dangerous Revisionism” represents a change of position for the NYT.  With respect to a clearer criticism of Abe’s revisionism policy regarding Japan’s historical pass, it represented somewhat a change of position.  But the article also used the term “China’s aggressive stance in territorial disputes in the East and South China Seas,” which indicates that the NYT really hasn’t changed its position on this dispute with respect to the legitimacy of China’s actions and the U.S.’ role in causing and sustaining this dispute.  I think the reason for the March 2, 2014 NYT editorial is because Abe and his government’s position toward Japan’s past history during WWII is so obviously wrong that the U.S. is now concerned that its strategic partnership to use Japan as its front-line pawn to surround, contain, and weaken China will suffer a drop of support from world opinion.

Because of all these unjustified criticisms of China by the American government and the Western press, is it any wonder that a recent Gallup survey [5] found that China, not Iran, is now America’s No. 1 enemy.  Although China does have a lot of areas that need to be improved and should be criticized, the criticisms as discussed in the previous five paragraphs are off the mark.

Time to Abandon this “Forgotten Holocaust” Foreign Policy:  It is time for the U.S. government and its media to abandon the “Forgotten Holocaust” foreign policy toward China, and adopt a less antagonistic and fairer policy to seek ways to cooperate or compete fairly, with the objective of working with China to help solve the many pressing problems facing humanity.

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[1]  “Inconsistent Foreign Policy May Drag U.S. Into Another War”:  http://www.dontow.com/2012/09/inconsistent-foreign-policy-may-drag-u-s-into-another-war/.

[2]  “Significance of the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands Dispute for the American People”:  http://www.dontow.com/2013/03/significance-of-the-diaoyusenkaku-islands-dispute-for-the-american-people/.

[3]  Actually the U.S. also had no right to hand over the Ryukyu Islands to Japan, because until the 1872 military annexation of the Ryukyu Islands by Japan, the Ryukyu Islands was a separate kingdom that was considered to be a vassal state to China.  Therefore, the Ryukyu Islands should be an independent nation.

[4]  For more discussion of China’s recently announced Air Defense Identification Zone, see the article “What Can Be Learned from China’s New Air Defense Identification Zone?:  http://www.dontow.com/2013/12/what-can-be-learned-from-chinas-new-air-defense-identification-zone/.

[5]  “Poll:  China, not Iran, now USA’s top enemy”:  http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/02/20/china-iran-enemy-gallup-poll/5651915/.