Beijing stokes opposition to US bases in Japan's Okinawa as it seeks to 'win hearts and minds' amid Taiwan tensions

China's recent remarks about the country's close ties with a chain of southern Japanese islands are yet another attempt by Beijing to "molest public opinion", analysts say, while it also stokes opposition to US military bases in the region to add to pressure on Japan in the event of conflict breaking out in the Taiwan Strait.

In early June, Chinese President Xi Jinping said during a visit to the country's national archives that he had learned about the "deep" relationship between the Ryukyu Islands, which includes Japan's Okinawa prefecture, and the southern Chinese province of Fujian in his time as governor there.

An independent kingdom with a distinctive culture and languages prior to its annexation by Japan in 1879, Ryukyu was ruled as a monarchy that paid tribute to China during the Ming dynasty.

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Xi's Ryukyu remarks, his first on the subject since taking office, were widely interpreted as an attempt at pressuring Tokyo into keeping its nose out of issues related to Taiwan, which Beijing regards as an internal matter.

Ryo Hinata-Yamaguchi, an assistant professor of international relations at the University of Tokyo, said Xi's comments showed China was again trying to "molest public opinion" in Okinawa.

"[It] partially shows China's psychological and cognitive warfare that rallies anti-government sentiments in foreign countries," he said, adding that this would not only inflame relations between the southern Japanese prefecture and Tokyo but also disrupt defence plans involving Okinawa and US forces based on the island.

Xi's remarks followed an April editorial in nationalistic Chinese tabloid Global Times, which said that a resolution submitted to the Japanese government by lawmakers from Okinawa prefecture was "clearly disregarded and ignored in Tokyo".

The resolution called on Japan to avoid deploying missiles or other military means in Okinawa, or the other Ryukyu Islands, in a bid to shore up its military power and attempt to achieve deterrence.

The Global Times editorial, which accused Japan and the US of threatening peace and stability with their military deployments in Okinawa, went on to ask: "Is this an attempt to permanently confine Okinawa [to] the nightmare of war shadows? Does Tokyo really care about the anxiety and anger of the Okinawan people?"

For years, residents of Okinawa have voiced their discontent with the presence of US military bases in their homeland, which comprises just 0.6 per cent of the Japanese archipelago's territory but hosts 70 per cent of the land used for US bases, and more than half the 50,000-strong troop presence. Peace activists have long called for the removal of all US military bases from Okinawa.

Apart from them being seen as a disproportionate burden, accidents and pollution from the US bases are ongoing sources of frustration for Okinawa's 1.5 million residents.

Jonathan Berkshire Miller, a senior fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs, said China, which had spent years "playing an influence game", was clearly ramping up propaganda efforts in Okinawa with a "more adventurous and risky" approach.

"[This is done by] calling into question other countries' claims to lands with 'historical connections' to China," Miller said, adding that if Taiwan tensions escalated, Beijing would "pressure Tokyo into a more conciliatory tone".

Raymond Yamamoto, an associate professor of global studies at Denmark's Aarhus University, said Xi's comments should be understood in the context of an article from 2013 in Communist Party mouthpiece the People's Daily, which cited scholars from the Chinese Academy of Sciences challenging Japan's sovereignty over the region.

A few days after the article's publication, People's Liberation Army two-star general Luo Yuan chimed in with the following: "I am not saying all former tributary states belong to China, but we can say with certainty that the Ryukyus do not belong to Japan."

The message was "not well received in Tokyo", Yamamoto said, noting that the article's "aggressive tone" led to strong reactions in Japan and subsequent attempts by Chinese officials to "distance themselves from the content".

Recently, Beijing had instead tried to "win the hearts and minds" of the Okinawans by constructing a narrative in which China was portrayed as "a country with close ties to the islands".

"[China appears to] care about the suffering of the Okinawans that has been ignored by Tokyo," Yamamoto said, adding that "publicly showing empathy" with the anti-US bases movement "is a smart move".

"It fuels the domestic debate in Japan over the heavy US military presence, a key element in preventing a potentially forceful 'unification' of Taiwan with the mainland," Yamamoto said.

"If successful, the charm offensive attempted by Xi could force Tokyo to make greater concessions towards the concerns of Okinawans, affecting the military capability of the US."

In March, Okinawa governor Denny Tamaki travelled to Washington to lobby for a reduced US troop presence in the prefecture, while on May 13 2,000 people took part in a march calling for troops to be withdrawn.

With tensions in the Taiwan Strait heightening in recent months, military watchers say a Chinese attack on the self-ruled island would likely be countered by a US-led coalition with crucial support from Japan and the American troops based in Okinawa, just an hour's flight east of Taiwan.

A.A. Bastian, a historian based in the US with an interest in foreign policy, pointed out that any new bases and the potential for war would be "re-traumatising" for Okinawans, adding that listening to what they wanted was most important right now.

"Though outsiders may believe there won't be war, Okinawans have to live their lives relying on that to be true, which is a larger stake in the game," she said.

Tamaki is expected to visit China this month to strengthen trade and people-to-people ties, especially with Fujian province, and promote the anti-US bases movement.

Tamaki took Xi's comments as a "willingness to develop future exchanges", said Kazuyuki Nakazato, director of Okinawa's representative office in Washington, adding that the prefectural government would continue to build friendly relations with China and others in the region.

Robert Kajiwara, president of The Peace For Okinawa Coalition, said Western and Japanese media had ignored the history of Luchu - the Okinawan term for the Japanese "Ryukyu" - as a peaceful, prosperous and independent country with close ties to China, Korea and Southeast Asia.

The coalition is a non-profit led by millennial Luchuans aimed at promoting Luchu's history, culture, language and independence.

"Xi is simply acknowledging the rich history and culture of Luchu, which both the US and Japan have long trampled on," Kajiwara said. "I see nothing wrong with that at all."

Travis Seifman, a Ryukyu scholar at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, said "Luchu" more closely approximated the pronunciation in the indigenous Okinawan language, whereas "Ryukyu" reflected the standard Japanese pronunciation.

"To my mind, it falls in line with indigenous and identity movements elsewhere in the world, pushing for decolonisation of language and the re-adoption of native peoples' own names for themselves or for their homelands," Seifman said.

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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