Wild card [By Zhai Haijun/China.org.cn]

In late September, the United States Congressional Research Service amended and republished a report titled "The Senkaku Islands Dispute: U.S. Treaty Obligations."

"During Senate deliberations on whether to consent to the ratification of the Okinawa Reversion Treaty, the State Department asserted that the United States took a neutral position with regard to the competing claims of Japan, China and Taiwan, despite the return of the islands to Japanese administration," the report states.

The U.S. report unmasks the lies of the Japanese government, which has illegally seized the Diaoyu Islands and claimed them as its own. Its so-called "nationalization" of the islands and intention to resort to international rule of law for justification last month is pure hypocrisy and farce.

However, the recent deployment of two U.S. aircraft carriers to the Western Pacific in light of the tension between China and Japan is giving the wrong signal to Japan. Analysts say the deployment of two nuclear-powered aircraft carriers from the U.S. Navy's Seventh Fleet indicates that the U.S. supports Japan's claims.

The deployment of the U.S. warships violates the country's neutral stance on the issue and will affect regional peace and stability.

The U.S. has said it has no position regarding the dispute. Its actions should match its words. The U.S. should not forget its role in causing the conflict in the first place.

Japan only came into the picture near the end of the 19th century when, in 1895, it defeated China's Qing Dynasty government and forced the Qing Court to sign the unequal Treaty of Shimonoseki, which ceded to Japan "the island of Formosa (Taiwan), together with all islands appertaining or belonging to the said island of Formosa."

At the conclusion of World War II, China recovered the territory that was invaded and occupied by Japan, including Formosa (Taiwan) and its surrounding islands, in accordance with the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation.

But in 1971, the United States signed the Okinawa Reversion Agreement with Japan to return the Ryukyu Islands (known to the Japanese as Okinawa) that were placed under U.S. trusteeship by the Treaty of San Francisco.

The 1971 agreement arbitrarily expanded the jurisdiction of the Ryukyu Islands to include the Diaoyu Islands, which were part of the island of Formosa (Taiwan). The Japanese government now refers to the Okinawa Reversion Agreement as evidence to justify its claim to the Diaoyu Islands.

However, A backroom two-party deal is not compatible with the international rule of law.

The U.S. should realize that the Diaoyu Islands are inherently part of China's sovereign territory and China's stance will never change. Chinese marine surveillance ships and fishery patrol ships will continue to perform their official duties in waters near the Diaoyu Islands.

To play a more constructive role in the Asia-Pacific region, the U.S. should discourage Japan's provocations and rectify its attempt to apply the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty to the Diaoyu Islands.

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