Japan should show due wisdom over Diaoyu Islands

According to the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation, the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea, which are called the Senkaku Islands by Japan, are "territory stolen from China by Japan" during its invasion and colonial occupation of Chinese territory, and they should have been returned to China after Japan's unconditional surrender at the end of World War II.

They weren't, and the call for the "nationalization" of the islands by some right-wing Japanese politicians broke the long-term tacit consensus reached between Beijing and Tokyo, after their diplomatic relations were normalized in 1972, that the issue should be shelved. This has led to rising tensions between China and Japan, as the United States is trying to use the islands to drive a wedge between the two neighbors. A trick that Washington is similarly playing with China's Ren'ai Reef in a bid to estrange the Philippines and China.

It should be noted therefore that the latest face-off between China and Japan near the Diaoyu Islands has come hard on the heels of the Pentagon reiterating the US' "ironclad commitment" to defend all of Japan, "including the Senkaku Islands and other territories", as US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said while meeting with Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara in Washington in early October.