ABSTRACT
The chapter examines the role US and Japanese state and non-state actors played in cross-Strait sovereignty contests in the East China Sea. It details the US and Japanese authorities’ concerns about the apparent cross-Strait collusion on the islands dispute as manifesting Taipei and Beijing’s broad agreement on the existence of One China. Thus, the notion of One China as constructed by state actors across the Taiwan Strait and produced by the ‘chance events’ in the disputed waters appeared real enough to the US and Japanese governments to take action. While the Obama administration made efforts to pressure Taipei to stop its active support for the pan-Chinese nationalists’ activities in the East China Sea, the Abe government took practical measures to remove Taiwan from the sovereignty conflict by reaching a fisheries agreement with Taipei in April 2013. The chapter discusses the agreement’s details—including its careful avoidance of the sovereignty question—and its wider implications for the sovereignty conflict in the East China Sea, President Ma’s One China project and Taiwan’s relations with China, US and Japan.
