A Survey of Senkaku Dispute

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Miles Yu, Taiwan’s First President Ignites Firestorm with Claim That Disputed Islands Belong to Japan. Washington Times, Aug 7, 2015.
www.washingtontimes.com/news/201 ... ns-former-president

Note:
(a) The English surname Miles (of Norman origin) : "via Old French from the Germanic personal name Milo, of unknown etymology."
(b) "Yet the Senkakus dispute is equally fundamental to Taiwan, especially for the ruling KMT party, as it has always been an existential issue, directly linked to such weighty matters as the international legitimacy of the Republic of China (Taiwan), national identity as an island democracy and the future of Taiwanese polity."

polity (n): "political organization"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/polity

The page gives one, just one example: "the polities of medieval Italy"  (Italy was not united until "Capture of Rome" on Sept 20, 1870: "Finally, as France during the disastrous Franco-Prussian War of 1870 abandoned its garrisons in Rome, the Italians rushed to fill the power gap by taking over the Papal States."  Wikipedia)

(c) Quote:

"In fact, it was Taiwan, not China, that started the Senkakus sovereignty controversy during the Nixon administration. Before 1970, neither China nor Taiwan had made any meaningful sovereign claims to the isles. Japanese sovereignty was generally accepted by the international community.

"When the Nixon administration was contemplating abandoning the Republic of China as the legitimate government of China and returning the Senkakus to full Japanese administration, Chiang Kai-shek was infuriated and challenged the US and Japan.

"On July 20, 1970, for the first time, Taipei sent a diplomatic note to Tokyo challenging the claim that the Senkakus were part of the Ryukyu islands.

"China made its first sovereign claim soon after the tripartite committee meeting [Japan-ROC-South Korea; Nov 12, 1970]. On Dec 3, 1970, Xinhua News Agency blasted the committee and claimed for the first time that the Senkakus, or Diaoyudao, were part of China’s continental shelf, belonging to China.

(d) Senkaku Islands
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senkaku_Islands
("In 1969, the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE) identified potential oil and gas reserves in the vicinity of the Senkaku Islands")
(e) "As a die-hard KMT follower, Mr Ma, then a Harvard law student, was an activist in the Preserving the Diaoyutai movement in Boston via his involvement in a KMT-sponsored journal, The Boston Bulletin 波士頓通訊, and the Anti-Communist Patriotic Alliance 反共愛國聯盟 — an existential passion that is still in vivid display in Mr Ma today."