Ref: Agaknya akan terjadi peperangan besar di Asia dalam waktu mendatang gara-gara perselisihan hak pemilikan wilayah?
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/20/world/asia/japanese-activists-display-flag-on-disputed-island.html?_r=1&ref=asia Protests in China After Japanese Fly Flag on Island By KEITH BRADSHER and MARTIN FACKLER Published: August 19, 2012 HONG KONG — Anti-Japanese protests spread across China over the weekend, and the landing of Japanese activists on a disputed island on Sunday sharply intensified tensions between the two countries. Enlarge This Image Kyodo/Reuters Japanese activists raised flags early Sunday on Uotsuri Island, part of the small archipelago known in Japan as Senkaku and in China as Diaoyu. Enlarge This Image Associated Press Thousands of protesters turned out in Chengdu, China, on Sunday in response to Japanese activists landing on a disputed island in the South China Sea. Protesters took to the streets in nearly a dozen Chinese cities on Saturday and Sunday in response to Japan’s detention on Wednesday and deportation on Friday of activists from Hong Kong, Macau and China who had landed on the island, part of a chain of uninhabited islands known as the Diaoyu in China and the Senkakus in Japan. Demonstrations took place in cities up and down China’s eastern provinces, according to Xinhua, the official news agency. Chinese state media portrayed the demonstrations as fairly small, involving fewer than 200 people, and not extending to inland provinces. But photographs posted on Sina Weibo, the country’s most widely used microblogging service, suggested that the crowds had been far larger. In one image said to be from the southwestern city of Chengdu, deep in China’s interior, the number of protesters appeared to be in the tens of thousands. “Defend the Diaoyu Islands to the death,” one banner said. Another said, “Even if China is covered with graves, we must kill all Japanese.” Another photograph showed a handwritten sign taped to the entrance of Suning, a popular electronics store, telling customers it was no longer selling Japanese products. Some protests appear to have turned violent. According to several postings, demonstrators on Sunday attacked sushi restaurants or other businesses perceived to have a Japanese connection. Several photographs said to be from Shenzhen, across the border from Hong Kong, showed what appeared to be damaged or overturned cars — most of them Japanese models — as well as several police vehicles. The demonstrations appeared to be sanctioned and chaperoned by the police, who generally prohibit public protests unless they suit the needs of the Communist Party. In the past, Beijing has allowed nationalist sentiment to bubble up into street demonstrations, but the authorities usually keep them contained out of concern they might spiral out of control or metastasize into popular antigovernment sentiment. Even as the protests began unfolding on Sunday morning, a group of conservative Japanese activists might have planted the seeds for further anger in China. About 10 of the activists, including local assembly members from Tokyo, swam ashore to the disputed island, Uotori. While Japan controls the island chain, the Tokyo government restricts access in order to avoid inflaming regional tensions. The 10 who landed on Sunday did so without permission, and were later questioned by the Japanese coast guard. The group said they were responding to the pro-China activists’ landing, and they urged Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to do more to defend the islands. “Four days ago there was an illegal landing of Chinese people on the island,” Koichi Mukoyama, a lawmaker who was sailed to the island but did not swim ashore, was quoted as saying by The Associated Press, “We need to solidly reaffirm our own territory.” The Chinese Foreign Ministry reacted angrily, after having asked Japan to make sure no activists reached the island. “Japanese right-wing elements have illegally violated China’s territorial sovereignty,” Qin Gang, a spokesman, said in a statement on the ministry’s Web site. “Relevant officials from the Foreign Ministry have already made stern representations to the Japanese ambassador, making a strong protest and urging Japan to cease actions that are damaging China’s territorial sovereignty.” The Japanese activists were part of a group of conservative members of Parliament and local politicians who arrived at the island on a flotilla of nearly two dozen boats that carried about 150 people. The Japanese Coast Guard did not release the names of the activists who had made it to shore. Photos of the landing by the Kyodo News Agency showed several men and at least one woman standing in wet street clothes as they displayed a Japanese flag on the island’s rocky shore. In China, Global Times, a nationalist-inflected newspaper owned by People’s Daily, the Communist Party mouthpiece, held an impromptu seminar on the crisis on Sunday, with many participants calling for more radical action. During the seminar, one hawkish analyst, Dai Xu, called on the Chinese military to seize Japanese ships. Maj. Gen. Luo Yuan, one of the most outspokenly hawkish generals in China, called on Beijing to send 100 boats to defend the islands. “If necessary, we could make the Diaoyu Islands a target range for China’s air force and plant mines around them,” he said, according to a microblog posting by the newspaper. But Hu Xijin, the editor of Global Times and an organizer of the seminar, counseled restraint, a departure from his usually militant writings on China’s territorial disputes. He belittled the Japanese activists as “provocative right-wing monkeys,” but said the contretemps was not worth a full-scale war between the countries. “Chinese people, please don’t be overly angered by this,” he wrote. “We should have more confidence and view Japan from a global perspective.” While many postings on microblogs expressed rage against the Japanese, a significant number criticized the Chinese government for its timidity. Many such postings, however, were promptly deleted. Confrontations between Japan and China on or near the contested islands have the potential to become larger international incidents. China halted exports of crucial rare earth metals to Japan for nearly two months after the Japanese Coast Guard in 2010 detained a mainland Chinese fishing vessel that slammed into a coast guard ship when it was intercepted near one of the island. The export halt drew international attention to Chinese restrictions on exports of rare earths and helped lead to the filing last spring of a World Trade Organization case challenging China’s right to limit exports of such important minerals. Japan joined the United States and the European Union in filing the case, the first time that Tokyo has brought a trade case against its much larger neighbor. A rare earth industry executive said there had been no sign so far this time of a disruption in Chinese exports of the strategic minerals. The executive insisted on anonymity because of the diplomatic sensitivity of the issue. Keith Bradsher reported from Hong Kong, and Martin Fackler from Tokyo. Andrew Jacobs contributed reporting from Beijing. 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