China and Japan remain miles apart on uninhabited isles
The tense, unusual standoff between China and Japan over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, and the lack of an obvious resolution to the situation, were apparent during a panel discussion at MIT on Friday, as a Chinese diplomat and a former Japanese diplomat held firm to their countries’ positions, while adding that they hope to end the dispute.The question of who should possess the five tiny islands — the Diaoyu Islands, in Chinese, or the Senkaku Islands, in Japanese — is a long-running one. But it has flared up again recently, starting in September, when Japan bought three of the islands from a private owner, apparently to prevent them from being purchased by the nationalist former mayor of Tokyo. China has contested Japan’s actions, claiming its own historical right to the property; the two countries have since been engaged in a tense standoff marked by military patrols at...