The following is from Mr. Shí Píng’s serial column in today’s Sankei Shimbun.
The annotated text is mine.
Japan Misses Two Chances to “Resolve Senkaku Islands”
Chinese official ships have repeatedly been intruding into the territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands, a territory unique to Japan. The Japan Coast Guard has been doing its best to protect the islands, but the government has only made verbal protestations of regret.　
The Senkaku Islands are unquestionably Japan’s territory, both historically and under international law. The Senkaku Islands have never been the territory of China.
* some people call themselves writers, such as Keiichiro Hirano, whose brains are made up of editorials from the Asahi Shimbun.
He is a fool who has contributed significantly to lowering the market value of Kyoto University.
Unlike such fools is Mr. Nozomu Ishii, who graduated from the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Kyoto University, and is now an associate professor at the Faculty of Humanities, Nagasaki Junshin University.
In his book, “The Senkaku Refutation Manual: 100 Issues,” he verified all the historical data on the Senkaku Islands from Japan and China. He made it clear that the islands are Japanese territory.
He, too, is a national treasure, a supreme national treasure as defined by Saicho.
If there were such people as the three outstanding figures of Owari among the Japanese politicians, they would have translated his works into various languages and published them.
It is why they are still at the mercy of the vile and foolish mass media.
The mass media and the so-called cultural people who sympathize with them have been saying “learn from Germany” for a long time. Still, they have never mentioned that Germany’s increased presence in the international community after the war was almost entirely due to the political stability resulting from the long-term government of the CDU.
They were so incapable of understanding such elementary school-level things that they had an incredible sense of masochistic view of history and, therefore, anti-Japanese ideology.
This article continues*.
And yet, the Japanese government continues with the “letting sleeping dogs lie” and has been unable to station even a single civil servant in the Senkaku Islands, let alone station the Self-Defense Forces there.　
I don’t know if it’s the disguised fishermen or the military, but China may land personnel in the Senkakus someday.
When that happens, will Japan’s top leaders be able to immediately order the deployment of the Self-Defense Forces to the Senkaku Islands to defend the country?　
The government has not demonstrated leadership in responding to the new coronavirus disaster and the Tokyo Olympics.
Seeing them wandering around in protests from opposition parties, I don’t think we can take such a resolute response.
In the end, we must rely on the U.S. military.
Indeed, current President Biden has clearly stated that the Senkaku Islands are included in the scope of Article 5 of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, which stipulates the obligation of joint defense.
However, this is based on the premise that the Senkaku Islands are under the control of Japan.
Japan has effectively controlled the Senkaku Islands, but the current situation is quite dangerous. 
I wonder if the international community will recognize this.
Japan has missed at least two chances to resolve this issue.　
The first time was in 1972, during the negotiations to normalize diplomatic relations between Japan and China. At that time, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, who met with then Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka, said that he did not want to talk about the Senkaku issue now.
It was China, which they isolated in the international community, that rushed to normalize diplomatic relations.
For Japan, there was no reason to rush into normalization.
Prime Minister Tanaka should have said, “Pull back on your territorial claim (to the Senkaku Islands). If you don’t, we will stop normalization negotiations.” He should have said that and kicked his seat and left.　
The second time was in 1978, when Deng Xiaoping, China’s supreme authority, visited Japan. This time, too, it was China that was in trouble.
To implement the reform and open-door policy that Deng Xiaoping promoted, China signed a peace and friendship treaty with Japan and wanted official development assistance (ODA) and advanced technology from Japan. 
China wanted them desperately.
However, the Japanese government accepted Deng Xiaoping’s “shelving” of the Senkaku issue. 
The Japanese government has abandoned the chance to settle this issue.
It can say that the Japanese government is taking the territorial issue, which is the foundation of the nation, lightly. 
From the perspective of common sense in the international community, this is an unbelievable move.　
How will China move on the Senkaku issue in the future? 
What should Japan do to prepare?　
For China, the priority is Taiwan.
President Xi Jinping is an overconfident dictator, and no matter what the international community says, he doesn’t listen to them.
I think there is a possibility that he will take sink or swim action (invade Taiwan). 
Depending on the movement of the U.S. military at that time, they will probably come for the Senkakus next.　
What will Japan do?
Rather than the government, it will be a question of “the resolve of the Japanese people.
Do you want to protect your territory even if you have to fight a war with China or not? 
That is the kind of resolve.