More Disputed Island Fun

Remember the Senkaku Islands? Well, some folks from the Japanese government decided to take some kind of sightseeing trip over them for a few hours on Monday. I’m not sure what exactly their purpose was. But if it was to check and see if the islands were still disputed…they sure are. Here’s the riveting story.

The House of Representatives members, including Yukio Edano of the Democratic Party of Japan and Koichi Hirata of the Liberal Democratic Party, viewed areas around the islets known in Japan as Senkaku, in China as Diaoyu and in Taiwan as Tiaoyutai for about three and a half hours by airplane.

A diplomatic source in Beijing said the Chinese Foreign Ministry called Mitsuhiro Wada, minister at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing, and protested against the action by the lawmakers.

Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry also said Monday it protested to Japan over the lawmakers’ action.

Japan-Taiwan relations have soured since a Japan Coast Guard patrol vessel chased and collided with a Taiwanese leisure fishing boat on June 10 near the islets. The Japanese patrol vessel rescued all 16 people aboard the sinking boat and no serious injuries were reported.

AP via Breitbart

If we want to pretend like this had nothing to do with fighting over some rocky islets in the middle of nowhere, we can only assume that the governmental officials decided upon an impromptu picnic lunch. And the location they chose? Well, that’s just your tax yen at work, as they say.