Published on September 8, 2019.
This article introduces an essay by former U.S. Marine Corps Colonel Grant F. Newsham, in light of the continued presence of Chinese government vessels around the Senkaku Islands.
It discusses the danger of China’s ongoing infiltration strategy over the Senkaku Islands and its mounting pressure on Japan in the East China Sea.

September 8, 2019.
The claim that Japan’s Senkaku Islands, located in Ishigaki City, Okinawa Prefecture, are Chinese territory is a convenient pretext for picking a fight.
This is a chapter I published on September 7, 2018, under the title: From an essay by former U.S. Marine Corps Colonel Grant F. Newsham, published in this month’s issue of the monthly magazine Sound Argument under the title “The Senkaku Islands Are a ‘Powder Keg’ Between Japan and China.”
The following is from page 7 of yesterday’s Sankei Shimbun.
Chinese Government Vessels Around the Senkakus for the Eighth Consecutive Day.
On the 6th, in the contiguous zone outside Japanese territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands, located in Ishigaki City, Okinawa Prefecture, a Japan Coast Guard patrol vessel confirmed that four ships of the China Coast Guard were sailing there.
It was the eighth consecutive day that Chinese authorities’ vessels had been confirmed around the Senkakus.
According to the 11th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters in Naha, one of the vessels was equipped with what appeared to be a machine cannon.
The patrol vessel warned them not to approach Japanese territorial waters.
The following is from an essay by former U.S. Marine Corps Colonel Grant F. Newsham, published in this month’s issue of the monthly magazine Sound Argument under the title “The Senkaku Islands Are a ‘Powder Keg’ Between Japan and China.”
Emphasis in the text, apart from headings, is mine.
Every few months, it seems that articles appear in the Western media saying that relations between Japan and China are moving toward a thaw.
Having seen such articles far too often over many years, one is tempted to answer as follows.
“They always seem about to do so, and yet they never do.”
Japan and China are heading toward conflict.
It may take some time.
While attention is focused on the situation in North Korea, a grave clash is approaching in the East China Sea.
There, China is trying to humiliate Japan and remove it as a presence that could become a threat to China’s domination of Asia.
The claim that Japan’s Senkaku Islands, located in Ishigaki City, Okinawa Prefecture, are Chinese territory is a convenient pretext for picking a fight.
One of the purposes for which China has rapidly built up its military power over the past twenty years is to gain control over the East China Sea and the Senkaku Islands.
China is trying to achieve this by gradually “infiltrating.”
It is sending many vessels and aircraft into these waters, including those of the Coast Guard and fishing boats, and it is doing so with such frequency that Japan has not been able to respond adequately.
There is a scenario in which an irritated Japanese government agrees to make a deal with the Chinese side.
China may land “civilians” or Coast Guard personnel on the uninhabited Senkaku Islands.
It may do so “to support ship navigation, or to rescue fishermen.”
That would amount to an attitude toward Japan of, if you can lay a hand on us, then try it.
Judging from recent trends, the Self-Defense Forces recognize that China may come there in large numbers within a few years, or even today.
In recent years, China has sent hundreds of fishing boats to the Senkakus and the Ogasawara Islands in Tokyo.
This has been done with the support of China Coast Guard and People’s Liberation Army vessels beyond the horizon.
What is the aim?
It is to make the Japanese side understand what could happen when China decides that the time has come.
Japan has responded under intense pressure, both militarily and politically.
Even so, the situation will not become easier.
If the “infiltration operation” does not succeed, the People’s Liberation Army will, as a decision of the Party, launch a “short, decisive” war.
It will do so in order to make Japan understand China’s real power, and further, to occupy the Senkaku Islands or other Japanese territory.
China may not yet be fully prepared for war, but within a few years its preparations will be complete.
This article continues.