The Japan Times points out that the world is having two simultaneous wag the dog crises this week:
The purchase of three Senkaku islets from their private owner was aimed at keeping nationalist activists at bay and reducing tensions with China, but now the government must deal with Beijing's anger over the move.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's administration was left with little choice but to buy the rocky outcroppings in the East China Sea after the stridently nationalistic Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara announced in April plans to buy the islets from their Saitama owner and then develop them to ensure they aren't sold to China.
The prospect of construction on the islets — and boatloads of activists landing on their shores — would be sure to upset China, so the central government stepped in Tuesday to buy the islets for ¥2.05 billion. It has no plans to develop them.
You can see the logic here: no-one wants Ishihara buying the islands and dumping a homemade militia of the Mishima's boyfriend type on them. Beijing has just responded to the fact that they are now official Japanese government property without any acknowledgment of the pressure Tokyo was under. Maybe this was Ishihara's calculation.
The timing is certainly suspicious, since 18 September is the anniversary of the Japanese invasion of China. Within China there seems to be an emerging policy of territorial pre-emption. The Beijing-Henan CSL game* has been cancelled against the prospect of anti-Japanese chanting and demonstration-sized empty space around at least some Japanese diplomatic buildings in major cities appears to have been closed off. This is one of those awkward occasions when there's a general hope that China does suppress public opinion rather than respond to it or let it rip.
The latest on Xi, by the way, is that he's expected back in public view on Saturday, with explanations for his absence now clustering around the bad back/mild heart attack duopoly, though I understand that there was also an intriguing tale of him being stabbed by an angry servant while he kicked back around the swimming pool. I'm still holding out in the hope that they were figuring out how to get the facial tattoo he had done when he went on a bender off without leaving too many visible marks.
*the rest are going ahead, afaik
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