President Xi’s unusual reference to “Ryukyu”, linked with Taiwan, jolts Japan. (21jn23)


Splendor of Okinawa: Dahlia, roadside Uruma, 24jn23


(BEIJING: Jiji) The Chinese Communist Party organ People’s Daily reported President Xi Jinping’s statement about “Ryukyu” and it caused a ripple. However, it may be an intentional jolt to Japan with its strong concerns over the Taiwan issue, just prior to Okinawa Prefecture Governor Denny Tamaki’s trip to China at the beginning of July.


The first page of the 4 June issue of the People’s Daily reported on the news of President Xi’s visit to a history museum on the outskirts of Beijing. During his inspection tour, President Xi alluded to the Ryukyu Kingdom, which ruled Okinawa from the 15th to 19th centuries. Among his statements, he noted, “Fuzhou City (the capital of China’s Fujian Province) has a Ryukyu Mansion (where visitors from Ryukyu stayed). The city’s deep fellowship with Ryukyu is well known.”


According to Hong Kong’s Sing Tao Daily, this was President Xi’s first statement on either Ryukyu or Okinawa since taking office as China’s supreme leader.


During his inspection tour, President Xi also viewed historical materials about the ambassadors sent to Ryukyu by the Ming Emperors. Strongly expressing the viewpoint of the Chinese side, the history museum staff noted, “There are records that the Diaoyu Islands (the Chinese name for Okinawa Prefecture’s Senkaku Islands) were associated with China.” However, President Xi himself made no mention of Senkaku territorial rights.


Between 1985 and 2002, now President Xi was then a government official in Fujian Province. It was pointed out that  his thoughts on reunification with Taiwan,  just on the shores opposite Fujian, deepened there.


President Xi’s statements regarding Okinawa came just as Japan’s concerns over the Taiwan issue are rising. Perhaps his aim is to take a look at putting Japan in check. The People’s Daily also published an opinion piece by a researcher claiming Okinawa’s Reversion to Japan was ‘yet to be settled’, spotlighting the 13-year rift in Sino-Japanese relations over the Japanese Government’s sovereignty over Senkaku. 


At the beginning of July, Governor Tamaki will visit China as a member of 

The Japan Association for the Promotion of International Trade (chair:  former Speaker of the House of Representatives Yohei Kono). After the schedule of the Association is completed, the governor will independently visit Fuzhou City.


At a press conference on 8 June, Governor Tamaki commented on President Xi’s statement, “I took it just as showing a desire for the future development of cultural exchanges.”


Original Japanese article: Jiji Communications, published Wednesday 21 June 2023 at 07:08.

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/224f10c3cf80f827190be31337a433c0395d35b5


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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