ABSTRACT
The territorial dispute between China and Japan over the Diaoyu islands, to which Taiwan also laid sovereignty claims, has emerged as the most visible security issue in East Asia at this moment. The rounds of tensions in 2012 are certainly the renewal of the old territorial feuds and variants have emerged to further roil the already-uneasy waters. The 1972 Reversion Agreement between the US and Japan, and whether the Diaoyu Islands fell into the reversion area, had unraveled the more complicated issue the competition for the representativeness of China in the international community between Mao's China, the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Chiang administration in Taiwan, the Republic of China (ROC). The determination to safeguard China's marine rights and interests is clearly vindicated by the newly-established Chinese marine administration in April, 2013. Technical adjustments aside, China also needs to ponder upon the possibility that frequent fishing run-ins encourages physical conflicts between law enforcement agencies and civilian fishermen.
