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Ma needs Diaoyutai
history lesson
By Lai Fu-shun 賴福順
In mid-September, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said that the Diaoyutai Islands
(釣魚台) originally belonged to China’s Qing Dynasty and were ceded to Japan under
the Treaty of Shimonoseki. This meant that they should have been given back to
the Republic of China (ROC) at the end of World War II. In contrast, former
president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) says that Japan should have sovereignty over the
Diaoyutais.
For serving and former presidents to have such starkly different opinions about
their country’s national territory is not just a first for Taiwan, but also a
rarity in world history. So, who is right?
Without records, there can be no history. There are two kinds of historical
record — primary and secondary sources. There are dozens of historical documents
that provide secondary sources about the Diaoyutais, the most well-known among
them being The Book of Sui (隋書), written by Wei Zheng (魏徵) and others during the
Tang Dynasty, and the New Book of Tang (新唐書) composed by Ouyang Xiu (歐陽修) and
others during the Song Dynasty.
These works tell us that the Diaoyutai Islands were discovered in the fifth
century AD by people from Ryukyu, which is the ancient name for modern-day
Okinawa.
At that time, the Diaoyutai Islands were notable merely as a navigation mark for
ships sailing between Ryukyu and China. They were tiny islands that neither
Ryukyu nor China wished to possess.
For about 1,000 years from the fifth to 15th centuries, although people knew of
the existence of the Diaoyutais, they did not give the islands a name.
The University of Oxford’s Bodleian Library has in its collection a guidebook
written in the 15th century that describes more than 10 historical sea routes in
East Asia. This book is the earliest primary source concerning the Diaoyutais,
which it calls the Diaoyu Islands (釣魚嶼).
At almost the same time, the Kingdom of Ryukyu started paying tribute to China’s
Ming Dynasty, which sent envoys to Ryukyu and conferred titles on Ryukyuan
officials. This is recorded in more than 30 extant works dating to the end of
the Qing Dynasty, most of which mention the Diaoyutais.
There are dozens of other documents that include records about the Diaoyutais,
including descriptions of shipping routes as well as collected works, notes,
gazetteers and other documents.
Among more than 60 Chinese documents from the Ming and Qing dynasties that
mention the Diaoyutais, aside from one which is an inaccurate record, none
record the Diaoyutais as belonging to either China or Ryukyu.
Toward the end of the 19th century, international law as practiced in Western
countries spread to East Asia, and the first territory to which the norms of
international law were applied was the formerly unwanted Diaoyutai archipelago.
The Japanese government found that the Diaoyutai Islands were terra nullius, or
unclaimed territory, which met the conditions laid out in international law
under which a state could acquire sovereignty over terra nullius by being the
first to occupy it.
In 1885, Japan officially declared its occupation of the islands, and in 1890 it
incorporated them into its sovereign territory, placing them under the
jurisdiction of Okinawa Prefecture. On Jan. 14, 1895, Okinawa Prefecture
installed national emblem markers on the Diaoyutais with the central
government’s approval.
This sequence of actions was in accordance with the procedure for acquiring
territory by means of first occupation as stipulated in international law. From
that time on, the Diaoyutais were no longer terra nullius, becoming instead part
of the Japanese Prefecture of Okinawa.
From 1945 until 1971, the islands were under US trusteeship, and in 1972 they
were returned to the jurisdiction of Okinawa Prefecture.
It should be noted that contemporary Chinese newspapers reported on Japan’s
declaration of its occupation of the Diaoyutais in 1885, but the Qing Dynasty
government did not raise any objection either at the time of Japan’s declaration
or thereafter.
The Republic of China (ROC), which followed the Qing Dynasty, did not protest
about it either, and neither did the People’s Republic of China (PRC) complain
about it before 1970. In fact, it even published maps showing the Diaoyutai
Islands as belonging to Japan.
Taiwanese should note that when Japan installed national markers on the
Diaoyutai Islands on Jan. 14, 1895, the First Sino-Japanese War was still
raging.
Although the Chinese navy was suffering one defeat after another, it had not yet
surrendered. Therefore the Diaoyutai Islands issue is not related to the Treaty
of Shimonoseki, which was signed on April 17, 1895.
Besides, the map of Taiwan that was delineated in the Treaty of Shimonoseki does
not include the Diaoyutais. This means that Ma’s statement that the Diaoyutai
Islands were ceded to Japan together with Taiwan in the Treaty of Shimonoseki is
untrue.
Lai Fu-shun is a professor in the Department of History at Chinese Culture
University.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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