China, Japan, and Senkaku Islands: Conflict in the East China Sea Amid an American Shadow

Dr Monika Chansoria

Monika Chansoria’s book on the Senkaku Islands is a long-awaited work of excellence. Through her meticulous and objective examination of the Japanese and Chinese arguments, she marvellously sheds a revealing light on the true nature of the issue. As the maritime security of the Indo-Pacific faces formidable challenges, this book provides great lessons and deep insights. It, indeed, is a must read.
Amb Shingo Yamagami
Director General, The Japan Institute of International Affairs, Tokyo

Dr. Chansoria’s most timely book analyses, with rare perspicacity, the rival Sino-Japanese claims over the Senkaku Islands, which intersect directly with the broader US presence as an established Pacific power and a de jure Japanese ally. In so doing, she methodically charts an insightfully analytical path into possible future scenarios of China’s increasing assertiveness in the East China Sea from a strategic expert’s vantage point.
Amb Harsh Bhasin
Chair, Department of Asian and Asian-American Studies
State University of New York, Stony Brook, New York

Tracing the genesis of the Senkaku Islands in the memoirs of history, and its potential future, in the backdrop of the East China Sea’s brewing dispute, this book chronicles the journey of Sino-Japanese relations in the explicit context of the Senkaku Islands. The evolving power transition dynamics in East Asia render Washington the lynchpin of Tokyo’s diplomatic and security strategy, and vice versa. Conversely, China is abrasively displaying an almost predictable geo-strategic pattern and strategy of enforcing territorial claims across Asia, keeping it just below the threshold of provoking conflict, whilst testing the tenacity of existential status quoist norms. Consequentially, the need to steer Asia towards a regional order that maintains stability in the power equilibrium, thereby challenging a visibly coercive Sino-centric vision of the future Asia, especially within the Indo-Pacific, has become far more manifest than ever before.

Dr Monika Chansoria Dr. Monika Chansoria is a Senior Fellow, heading the China programme at the Centre for Land Warfare Studies in New Delhi, and a columnist on foreign policy and strategic affairs.

Contents

Foreword
Preface xv
1. The Genesis of Dispute in the East China Sea 1
2. International Law, Legal Provisions, and Conventions
3. The Resurgence of Nationalism in China and Japan
4. Oil, Gas, and Economics of the Conflict
5. The China-Japan-America Triangle: Coercive Diplomacy, Military Supremacy, and Strategic Power Interplay
6. Reigniting a Quiescent Volcano: Is there a Finish Line to the Dispute Over the Senkakus?
7. Submissions for Policy Consideration and Formulation
Author’s Profile
Index