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Flags, tensions rise over disputed islands
Japan's territorial disputes with its neighbours flared anew on Sunday as a group of nationalist activists swam ashore and raised flags on an island also claimed by China.
Chinese took to the streets in protest, as Beijing lodged a formal complaint, urging Tokyo to prevent frictions from escalating further.
Ten Japanese made an unauthorised landing on Uotsuri, the largest in a small archipelago known in Japan as the Senkaku Islands and in China as the Diaoyu Islands.
The uninhabited islands surrounded by rich fishing grounds are controlled by Japan but also claimed by China and Taiwan.
Of the 10 who visited the island, five were conservative local assembly members.
"The Senkakus are undoubtedly Japanese territory," said Eiji Kosaka, an assembly man from Tokyo's Arakawa district.
"It is to be expected that Japanese would take that to heart."
China's Foreign Ministry protested, summoning Japan's ambassador to voice its complaints.
"The Japanese side should properly handle the current issue and avoid seriously damaging the overall situation of China-Japan relations," ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement.
Tokyo rejected a complaint by China's ambassador to Japan, Cheng Yonghua, according to Japan's Foreign Ministry.
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Japan-China dispute: little islands, big problem
The governor of Tokyo wants to buy them, Taiwan says it would like them back and China has made their return a national priority. But for the Kurihara family, the islands Japan knows as Senkaku are just a bit of land they would really rather sell.
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Japan activists at islands in China row
SENKAKU ISLANDS, Japan (AFP) - A flotilla carrying Japanese nationalists and lawmakers arrived Sunday at islands at the heart of a territorial row with China, with activists declaring their intention to land.
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China protests Japanese visit to disputed islands
A diplomatic row is heating up between China and Japan over a few uninhabited islands in the waters north of Taiwan, which both countries lay claim to.
China lodged a formal protest ahead of this weekends visit by a group of Japanese nationalists, including several politicians, to the disputed islands known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan in the East China Sea.
The Japanese group, numbering more than 100, headed to islands early Saturday morning and is expected to arrive on Sunday.
They are planning a ceremony to commemorate the countrys dead from the Second World War. Boats will circle the islands as the group holds the event.
The Japanese protest flotilla is a response to a similar action by 14 Chinese activists this week, who reached the islands on Wednesday. A handful of the activists swam to land, planting Chinese flags and declaring the islands part of China.
Ownership of the islands would provide exclusive mineral, oil and fishing rights in surrounding waters.
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Limbless Frenchman swims between US, Russian islands
Quadruple amputee Philippe Croizon swam between islands in the icy Bering Strait Friday to cross from America to Asia in the final part of a quest to link all continents.
The Frenchman braved strong currents and near-freezing temperatures in a roughly four kilometre (2.5 mile) swim between the US island of Little Diomede and Big Diomede in Russia that he said took about one hour and 20 minutes.
"This was the hardest swim of my life, with a water temperature of four degrees Celsius (39 degrees Fahrenheit) and strong currents," the deeply moved Croizon told AFP after reaching the Russian island.
"We made it," said the 44-year-old, who was accompanied by long-distance swimmer Arnaud Chassery, 35.
Since May the pair have swum across three other straits separating the continents and Friday's was the last.
They plunged through the ocean up to the limit of the territorial waters separating Russia and the United States, and then continued a few hundred metres (yards) into Russian waters to enter Asia.
The men arrived on Alaska's Little Diomede island in a fishing boat last Sunday but their swim was held up for four days because of a powerful storm with winds of up to 140 kilometres (87 miles) an hour.
Over the past three months, they have swum from Papua New Guinea to Indonesia, crossing from Oceania to Asia; across the Red Sea from Egypt to Jordan between Africa and Asia; and from Spain to Morocco, between Europe to Africa.
Croizon had all four limbs amputated in 1994 after being struck by an electric shock of more than 20,000 volts as he tried to remove a TV antenna from a roof. He uses flippers attached to prosthetic limbs to swim.
He said his accomplishment was a message of encouragement to other disabled people.
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Defiant Japanese head for islands
18 August 2012 Last updated at 12:11 ET
Japanese politicians have set sail for a group of disputed islands, in the teeth of protests by China which claims them for its own.
A flotilla of some 20 Japanese boats set out for the Senkaku islands, called Diaoyu in China, and is expected to anchor off them early on Sunday.
The politicians plan to commemorate Japanese dead in World War II, when Japan occupied eastern China.
But Japan's government has denied them permission to land on the islands.
China says the event will undermine its "territorial sovereignty" and this is the latest move in an escalating dispute over the islands.
On Friday, Japan deported several Chinese activists who had landed there this week.
The islands, also claimed by Taiwan, are close to strategically important shipping lanes, offer rich fishing grounds and are thought to contain oil deposits.
Emotions have been running high since the commemoration on Wednesday of Japan's surrender in World War II, when China and South Korea both protested against a visit to a Tokyo war shrine by two Japanese cabinet members.
Just before 21:00 (12:00 GMT), the 150-strong party sailed out of the Japanese port of Ishigaki.
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Japan activists sail for islands despite China anger
A flotilla of boats carrying Japanese nationalists and lawmakers set sail Saturday for islands at the heart of a vitriolic diplomatic row with China, despite warnings from Beijing.
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China calls for Japan 'dialogue' over islands
China has called on Japan to pursue "dialogue and negotiation" to resolve the two countries' escalating territorial dispute over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both.
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China protests over plans by Japanese group to visit near disputed islands
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China lodged a formal protest with Japan on Saturday over plans by a Japanese nationalist group including lawmakers to hold a ceremony commemorating Japanese dead from World War Two near disputed islands in the East China Sea this weekend, state news agency Xinhua said. The group of more than 100 people travelling in a flotilla of boats is expected to arrive near the islands ...
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China protests over plans by Japanese group to visit near disputed islands
Release Diaoyu Islands activists a wise move
Beijing, Aug. 17 (Xinhua-ANI): Tokyo has made a wise move by releasing all 14 Chinese captured Wednesday on and off the Diaoyu Islands, easing the anguish of millions of Chinese, who, along with the activists, are determined to safeguard China's sovereign rights.
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Cook Islands scramble to accommodate Clinton
A VISIT to the Cook Islands by US secretary of state Hillary Clinton is proving a tall order for the diminutive nation’s resources.
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China demands Japan release activists arrested on gas-rich disputed islands
Tension over islands reaches new high, while row with Seoul reveals Tokyo's unresolved wartime tensions with neighbours China has urged Japan to immediately and unconditionally release 14 activists who planted the Chinese flag on a disputed island that has long been a source of tension between the two Asian powers. Fourteen activists from China, Hong Kong and Macau travelled by boat to the group ...
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China demands Japan release activists arrested on gas-rich disputed islands
Kermadecs Islands: snorkeling around Meyer Islands
Kermadecs Islands: snorkeling around Meyer Islands
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Cook Islands prepare for Hillary Clinton visit
The tiny Cook Islands are proving almost too small for Hillary Clinton.The South Pacific island chain, home to just 10,000 people, is buzzing as it prepares for the expected visit of the US secretary of state, the biggest dignitary...
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Tiny Cook Islands borrows SUVs as expected visit by Hillary Clinton puts squeeze on resources
WELLINGTON, New Zealand - The tiny Cook Islands are proving almost too small for Hillary Clinton.
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Tiny Cook Islands borrows SUVs as expected visit by Hillary Clinton puts squeeze on resources
Japan expels Chinese arrested in islands dispute
Japan on Friday expelled several Chinese who were arrested after they landed on disputed islands, but activists on both sides vowed to take new trips there that could again inflame territorial tensions in North Asia.
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Tiny Cook Islands a squeeze for Hillary Clinton
The tiny Cook Islands are proving almost too small for Hillary Clinton.
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Japan on the Diaoyu Islands to show a sense of proportion—tomslong8.17
Hong Kong vessel carrying 14 Diaoyu Richland II "failed to dock in Taiwan, but also failed to defend the Diaoyu Islands and Taiwan ship to join, whether it will go alone to the Diaoyu Islands Moncler Jackets Outlet, as well as the Japanese side will deal with the Chinese side Henzhao Paul fishing people, are cause for concern. Sino-Japanese relations are likely to face a test.
Diaoyu Islands is typical of the disputed islands, it's controversial and much higher than the South Kuril Islands and Dokdo, one of the highest in East Asia. The status of the South Kuril Islands, is a World War II left directly above has a large number of Russian residents. Dokdo is Korea firmly in control, the Korean garrison and port facilities. The Diaoyu Islands are a typical desert island with nothing.
In Japan since its Diaoyu Islands have full "actual control", but in reality it is not. Not only civil Diaoyu Islands are China, they had boarded over the Diaoyu Islands Moncler Outlet, and the Chinese enforcement vessels in recent years has been to expand the norm of sovereignty patrol in the waters of the Diaoyu Islands. China announced that the Diaoyu Islands are China's inherent territory, never compromise. Japan's so-called "actual control" is false, and China development and utilization of the Diaoyu Islands to stop has been in the actual work.
Russian space enterprises responsible for the rocket failure to resign If Japan dispute over sovereignty of the Diaoyu Islands as the nature of the South Kuril Islands and Dokdo is self-deception. It has the potential to mislead the mood of the Japanese society, inspire extreme nationalism around the Diaoyu Islands, and eventually the Sino-Japanese relations toward the abyss.
Of course China should also exercise restraint, to see some practical consequences of China is not under the control of the Diaoyu Islands. The Diaoyu Islands should be at this stage is to expand and strengthen the Diaoyu Islands dispute, Japan is trying to Diaoyu Islands by "actual control" legalization dashed lay a solid foundation for future negotiations. China is now on the "back" the Diaoyu Islands, so the reality conditions are not met.
In fact, the understanding of Chinese society on the Diaoyu Islands is generally accurate, the civil Diaoyu both expressed feelings of patriotism, there are quite a sense of proportion. Solution by the two sides had a period of time of the Diaoyu Islands issue difficult to have a similar judgment, thus avoiding the island became the powder keg moment does not stop roaring.
But the recent few years the Japanese have begun acting out of line, the Japanese right-wing recently come up with by the government "bought" the farce of the Diaoyu Islands, Japan's politicians to apply for landing more and more Japanese society seems to be the Diaoyu Islands as a vent China dissatisfaction emotional and injured sense of the object passed on between Russia and South Korea, Japan's activism continued to stimulate the Chinese society Cheap Moncler Jackets.
Japan to make a choice: either to lower the stance, take the initiative to create the conditions so that the Diaoyu Islands, the situation in the disputed state of recovery of low-intensity, or to greet China's determination to go forward to engage with China on the Diaoyu Islands, the comprehensive strength of the escalating confrontation. Whether Japan is how to select, China will fight.
Japan to give up any illusions that China will be soft down. Become stronger and stronger the Diaoyutai voices and will of the Chinese society, China's national strength is growing, the importance of Japan is not greater than the importance of China to Japan, China concessions to Japan on the Diaoyu Islands simply makes no sense.
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Japan on the Diaoyu Islands to show a sense of proportion—tomslong8.17
Islands Trust invites public to participate in town hall meeting
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Islands Trust invites public to participate in town hall meeting