Declassified email to Clinton reveals how US urged Japan to consult with Beijing about 2012 purchase of Diaoyu Islands that sparked wave of protests

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A double page advertisement in the New York Times states Beijing’s position on the uninhabited group of islands in the East China Sea after Tokyo purchased them from a private owner. File photo: Reuters

Published: 6:05pm, 31 Jan 2016Updated: 6:05pm, 31 Jan 2016

The United States urged Japan to consult with China prior to Tokyo’s 2012 purchase of the disputed Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea from a private owner, a declassified email forwarded to then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton showed.

In the e-mail dated September 3, 2012, about a week before Japan’s purchase of the Senkakus claimed by China and Taiwan, then US Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell said he had urged Japan’s then Vice Foreign Minister Kenichiro Sasae and the Japanese government to “consult and advise Beijing on their plans.”

China and Taiwan call the islands Diaoyu and Tiaoyutai, respectively, while Japan calls them the Senkakus.

The tiny islands in the East China Sea, called Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese, are a major source of friction between the two neighbours. Photo: Kyodo

Campbell said he had requested Japan’s prior consultation with China when he met with Sasae on August 7, 2012, in Tokyo. At that time, the Japanese government “has just concluded a round of deliberations and apparently their PRC (People’s Republic of China) counterparts were irate,” according to the email.

“Sasae however believes that China actually understands the necessity of these actions and will accept them. (I’m not so sure.),” Campbell said in the message sent to senior State Department officials.