18
skirmishes between a Biaodiao boat and Japanese coastal guards this January. If causing
any Chinese civilian casualties, popular uproar at home may force the government to take
extreme measures and eventually lead to militarized conflicts.
Closely intertwined with the island disputes is also conflict over maritime
resources because East China Sea is reported to have rich oil and natural gas reserves. In
1978 Deng Xiaoping proposed that China and Japan could jointly explore the oil
resources surrounding the disputed island without touching on the sovereignty issue. But
national pride, yearning for energy supply, and domestic public pressure all pushed the
two governments to depart from this conciliatory stand. After they approved the UN Law
of the Sea Convention in 1996, China and Japan disagreed on the delimitation of their
Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ). Since the late 1990s, Chinese oceanographic research
ships have frequently entered Japan’s EEZ without advance notice, and Chinese naval
vessels are often found in areas close to Japan’s coastline. Japanese Foreign Minister
Kono lodged a formal protest in August 2000, and Japan’s Defense White Paper since
then has continuously pointed to these activities of Chinese ships as a potential security
threat to Japan. In response, Japanese Self Defense Force (SDF) also beefed up its air
patrol in this sea area, and its anti-submarine airplanes sometimes fly very close to
China’s territorial waters.
Controversy flared up again this May when the media reported that China would
begin construction of a oil and natural gas field near the disputed demarcation line
between Chinese and Japanese EEZs. Japan decided to launch its own geological survey
in a disputed sea area on July 7. Chinese Foreign Ministry immediately condemned the
survey as “a dangerous and provocative act.” As the dispute intensified, memories of
Convention