HISTORY OF THE CONFLICT OVER MARITIME BORDERS IN THE DIAOYU / SENKAKU ARCHIPELAGO

Abstract

The issue of borders in historical, geographical and political contexts is one of the most important in the modern world, because in conditions of international political turbulence, the issue of settling border conflicts, especially those of a multilateral nature, takes on a key role in resolving interstate conflicts. The Senkaku Islands (Diaoyu in Chinese cartography) include five uninhabited islands and three reefs with a total area of about 6.32 square kilometers, located in the southern part of the East China Sea, 175 km north of Ishigaki Island, 190 km northeast of Taiwan Island and 420 km east of mainland China. The Senkaku Islands are controlled by Japan, and their ownership is disputed by the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China. Potentially, this border conflict could become a casus belli in the relations of the above-mentioned states. Considering the evolution of the border dispute between Japan and the PRC over the ownership of the Diaoyu/Senkaku archipelago, four main stages of the conflict can be distinguished. From the 14th century to the 1960s, due to the insignificance of the archipelago and the lack of a developed system of maritime law, the archipelago was not of particular interest and was not a stumbling block in Sino-Japanese relations. In the 1970s and 1980s, due to the discovery of hydrocarbon deposits in the region, the conflict developed, but did not take serious forms, since, on the one hand, the United States could not allow a conflict between allies within the framework of the confrontation with the USSR, on the other hand, Beijing did not have a real opportunity to establish control over the archipelago. In the 1990s and 2000s, after the collapse of the bipolar system of international relations, the conflict escalated again, however, unlike the previous period, the PRC gradually moved out of Washington's orbit of influence and the physical inability of the PRC to fight for the archipelago by force became a deterrent factor. In the 2010s, the balance of power in the Asia-Pacific region changed significantly, and there was an attempt to form two alternative and competing systems of international security in the region, which led to a loss of security in the region as a whole. Because of this, China's behavior in this conflict is becoming increasingly aggressive.