Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 4, 2024

Postwar U.S. Foreign Policy and the Ryukyu and Diaoyu Islands Issues

(Abstract)

Zhang Sheng and Yin Zhaolu

The dispute over the sovereignty of the Diaoyu Islands is a matter of concern to both China and Japan, but process of its post-war “fabrication” is mainly related to the United States. Ensuring exclusive U.S. strategic control over the Ryukyus, etc., continuously revising Ryukyu policies to in coordination with U.S. policies in Asia and globally, and inducing Japan to “ally itself with the whole of the free world” to counter China and the Soviet Union constitute the basic points of post-war U.S. strategy. During the evolution of Ryukyus policy, the U.S., particularly the U.S. State Department and military, engaged in heated debates and games over the status, control and future of the Ryukyus on the basis of various strategic considerations. Against the backdrop of the outbreak of the Korean War and the escalating Cold War, Japan took advantage of the so-called “Communist threat” to continuously erode U.S. control over the Ryukyus, ultimately “forcing” the U.S. to make the decision to “relinquish jurisdiction (administrative rights)” over the Ryukyus. In the post-war standoff between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, Japan and the United States took advantage of the situation to entangle the Diaoyu Islands and affiliated islands, which have belonged to China since ancient times, into the concept of the Ryukyu Islands, while undertaking secret dealings during which the United States declared its “neutral” stance on the sovereignty dispute between China and Japan over the Diaoyu Islands. The Ryukyu issue illustrates the significant and far-reaching impact of maritime factors on Chinese history.