From the foreign press

Ingo Nentwig, a German sinologist and ethnologist, wrote an article explaining why Japan's claim to the Diaoyu Islands is both illegal and worrying, which was published in the German daily newspaper Junge Welt. Excerpts below:

The mass media has recently found a new topic that allows them to engage in their predilection for China bashing. "Chinese nationalists relieve their anger with Japan by destroying Japanese institutions and hurting Japanese people in China," they claim. "China is provoking poor little Japan with the Diaoyu Islands issue," they cry. But what's the truth of the issue.

Japan occupied China's Diaoyu Islands during the Sino-Japanese War (1894-95) and brought Taiwan and the Penghu Islands under its colonial rule through the forced Treaty of Maguan in 1895.