ABSTRACT
Disputes over the Diaoyu Islands and demarcation of the East China Sea have become focal points of Sino-Japanese strategic confrontation, as they steadily overshadow historical issues. The Diaoyu Islands are an archipelago, not in fact an individual island, with a total of 71 islands that are named by the China Oceanic Administration (COA). The Sino-Japanese demarcation in the East China Sea covers two main issues: first is the demarcation of, and second is the delimitation of the continental shelf. On 23 November 2013, the Chinese Ministry of Defense officially declared the establishment of the East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), whose area covers the Diaoyu Islands and their surrounding waters, traverses Japan’s contended ‘Sino-Japanese Median Line’ and extends as far as the vicinity of the Okinawa Trench. When discussing the security of China’s sea lanes, people invariably refer to the Malacca Strait or the ‘Malacca dilemma,’ scrutinizing routes in the South China Sea and in the west.
