(Gold Waves Silver Waves) Governor Denny Tamaki will visit China in July but… (28jn23)


Splendor of Okinawa: Bush Clock Vine, roadside Uruma, 23ap23


Governor Denny Tamaki’s China trip has been decided. They say a meeting with President Xi Jinping is being arranged. That is not, perhaps, cause for bubbling joy. Moreover, at the Prefectural Assembly meeting on 26 June, Governor Tamaki was queried about his response if the question of Senkaku Islands’ ownership were to pop up. He showed his hand with the abrupt reply, “It’s essential the no declaration be made.” Just as in his flippant trip to the US in March, he is getting a cold shoulder from the Government and the Prime Minister’s residence as well.


If he actually gets a face to face meeting with President Xi, he will probably want to grab the upper hand. However, such an expectation will be also apparent to the Chinese side.


One month before Governor Tamaki’s China visit, as if the timing were planned, using the People’s Daily as his mouthpiece, President Xi issued his very first statement on Okinawa, noting, “Fuzhou and Ryukyu have deep ties.” Could anyone but Governor Tamaki take that merely as, “President Xi was expressing his desire for cultural exchanges”?


The Japanese Government was jolted by this digging up of Okinawa’s history. To the eyes of anyone, this was seen as a transparent intent to use Okinawa as an ‘anti-Japan card’.


A Security Investigative Branch report, assembled in 2017, noted an opinion spreading in Chinese universities and think tanks on the uncertainty of Ryukyu possession, claiming, “The US handed over only Ryukyu sovereignty to Japan. But Ryukyu’s possession is unsettled.” 


China is analyzing how to propagate the opinion through people related to Japan and scholarly exchanges. It is regarded as a divisive strategy to create favorable opinions toward China in Okinawa. Governor Tamaki cannot but understand this.


Until the governor’s visit, China will be observing his every word and move. It intends to end up using our governor, even if he says nothing.


Even worse, just like US Secretary of State Blinken, will the governor end up saying nothing when he is seated in the ‘U’ shaped arrangement to pay homage to President Xi in the birthday seat?


Original Japanese article: Yaeyama Daily News, published Wednesday 28 June 2023 at 04:00

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/04c57043de63f9882a6ec0aac190e307d65ff5a9


Denny in the News: news about Governor Denny Tamaki.


Denny Tamaki is the governor of Okinawa Prefecture in Japan. Although Okinawa is important as an international tourist destination and a key element in strategic US Military Forces, its governor receives very little coverage in the Japanese press and almost none in the English language media. 


This blog hopes to  translate one news article a day on the governor.  It is unsponsored and unauthorized. The translator simply hopes to improve his skills and perhaps give the governor an English speaking audience. 


Any suggestion on improving the translation will be gratefully accepted. However, please leave political comments for another forum.


Where they occur, words and phrases in Ryukyuan (the Okinawan language) are rendered in italics and translated in parentheses. Names  whose readings are uncertain are rendered as Name (=Kanji?) as in Nagayuki (=長行?). Any corrections in such instances would be gratefully appreciated.


 

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