The Senkaku Islands which have been under Japanese rule for over a century, are now being claimed by China as its own and calls them Diaoyu Islands. Though Japan has maintained authority over the islands since 1895, maps earlier to this date have an ambiguous authority as no one particular country ruled them.
The San Francisco Peace Treaty after World War II and the Okinawa Reversion Agreement with the US in 1972, reaffirmed the islands’ status as part of Japanese territory. Further, the Chinese governments did not contest Japan’s sovereignty over the Islands for approximately 75 years, following the incorporation of the Senkaku Islands in 1895.
This changed in the 1970s, when significant attention was drawn to the islands due to the potential existence of the oil reserves in the East China Sea.
In 1992, China enacted the Law on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone, explicitly delineating its claim over the islands as part of Chinese territory. Since 2008, China has been sending government ships to the waters off the Senkaku Islands, and has repeatedly made incursions into Japanese territorial waters.
In April 2021, The Japanese government protested the topographical maps published by China which showed the Islands as part of the Chinese oceanic territory. In February 2021, China passed the Coast Guard Law which allows the Coast Guard to attack anyone who trespasses any area under its jurisdiction alarmed all its neighbours.
The new law also empowers the Coast Guard to halt construction or destroy foreign structures on Chinese-claimed land features, like those on the Senkaku Islands. China has been stepping up the activities of its government ships in the waters of the East China Sea, especially around the islands.
On November 19, four Chinese ships entered Japanese territorial waters near the uninhabited Senkaku Islands alarming the Japanese security establishment. The growing Chinese military activity in the East China Sea has alarmed the Japanese side which has warned that it will act if provoked further.
Aayush Pal 
Balaji Subramanian