The Territorial Disputes of Japan - The Senkakus

Pretty, huh?

As a return to blogging I’ll be doing a three part series on the territorial disputes of Japan. The most widely discussed dispute involves the Senkaku island chain, which is claimed by China, Japan, and Taiwan.

Part 1- The Senkakus

The Senkakus are located just to the north of Taiwan and to the south of the Ryuku Island Chain. Over the last several years various nationalist groups from each of the rival claimants have made pilgrimages to the islands to bolster their claims. The recent uptick in rhetoric has been partially caused by the Japanese government purchasing the islands from their private owners.



The Claimants:

Japan: Either Japan or the United States has had de-facto control over the islands since 1895. In that year Japan wrested Taiwan away from China, reduced Korea to unofficial colony status, and took possession of the disputed islands after conducting an historical survey and determining that no other government had claimed the Senkakus. After the Treaty of San Francisco, which ended World War II, the United States assumed control over the islands as well as over Okinawa. These territories were returned to Japanese control in 1972.

China: China has made inconsistent claims to the islands, but has recently stated that they have been a part of China since “ancient times.” While the Japanese have stated that the incorporation of the Senkakus is a different matter than the conquest of Taiwan in 1895, the Chinese view the issues as linked, both due to geographic proximity of Taiwan and the Senkakus and the similar dates of their incorporation into Japan. However, China’s stance on the issue is understandably complicated. Chiang Kai Shek was not in the position to challenge the Japanese claim to the islands as he required continued support from the United States. On the other hand, Mao Ze Dong’s China was shut out of the international system until the late 70’s and was completely internally focused.

Taiwan: Taiwan’s claims rest on the same historical basis as China’s. This is one of the few international issues that China and Taiwan agree upon- whomever the islands eventually are controlled by, the government should represent Chinese people. This interest may reflect a desire to raise Taiwan’s international profile during a time when its international profile is receding behind that of Mainland China.

Recent events: In the last several years expeditions from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and Mainland China have sailed to islands, harassed the ships of the other claimants, or attempted to make landfall. In most cases the Japanese Coast Guard has turned the ships away, or the crews arrested. This led to a tense several weeks in 2010 where it appears the Chinese government cut off shipments of valuable natural resources to Japan in response to the arrests.
Of course money is involved: Surveys in the 1960’s and 70’s revealed the likely presence of natural gas and oil near the islands. Obviously, all of the claimants would like the rights to harvest these natural resources.

WAR: Neither Japan or China wants war with the other, and Taiwan would be incapable of prosecuting one against Japan. However, wars between powers that have mutually beneficial economic relationships typically occur due to miscalculation rather than intent. The dangers of a midair collision between Japanese and Chinese fighters, which would then lead to nationalistic responses from both populations should not be underestimated. Additionally the ethnic disdain that both sides have expressed for the other could lead the commanders directly involved in the patrols to underestimate the other side’s potential. The lack of transparency by the Chinese military regarding its capabilities only enhances the risks.



America: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has stated that the United States makes no ruling on who should control the islands. However she also stated that in any conflict over the islands the United States would come to the defense of Japan… meaning the USA has an opinion on who does control the islands.

The Washington Apple Commission

A brief case study on the creation of the Washington Apple Commission and the subsequent "Washington Apples" brand.

Formation

The Washington Apple industry had undergone difficult times during the 1920's and 1930's. The depression had hit Washington hard and mitigated the attempts of an advertising association of apple farmers that had some success prior to the ripples of Black Tuesday reaching the Pacific states.

All the while worm controls had required the use of a costly pesticide that could only be cleaned by using expensive washing methods. This method also sharply reduced the longevity of apples, making the marketing season shorter and shipping cross-country even more difficult.

Into this situation stepped a horticulturalist, Ralph Sundquist, who realized that the apple growers of Washington must work together to seize a share of the apple market. He and other businessmen created a pilot program, using assessments leveled upon participating farmers to pay for an advertising campaign. The program was a success and demands for a permanent organization were being heard from across the state.

Shortly thereafter the Washington Apple Commission was formed and the legislature passed laws requiring participation from all apple growers. The legislation, and the commission, was almost nixed by a powerful State Senator, but he relented once an amendment was added to the bill that only producers of fresh apples had to participate, and those who made apples for processed products, a la applesauce, were exempt.

Once the compromise was made all Apple Growers paid a 1 cent per 42 lbs box. This assessment fluctuated to being as high as 40 cents per box before returning to its present level of 3.5 cents per box.

Structure

The Washington Apple Commission was designed to represent all of the apple growers in the state. Its leadership consists of a 14 member Board of Directors. Nine of the board members are elected by the farmers themselves and an additional four are elected by the apple shippers and marketers of the state. Each of these commissioners serves a three year term. The final member, who has a largely ceremonial supervision of the board, is the state director of agriculture. Despite the presence of a state official, the Commission is under the control of the growers as they pay the assessment fees which fund the Commission’s activities. The Commission also has full time employees in a variety of departments. They have ranged in number from the current 14 employees to over 80.

The Brand

The Washington Apple Commission chose to use a two pronged branding strategy. The first aspect was to brand all apples grown in the State of Washington as Washington Apples. Individual growers were still permitted to put their own logos on their apple shipments but the Washington Apple logo, along with a rating system to represent quality, would still be there.

A second prong of the campaign was to associate Washington Apples with health. The fruit had long been assumed to be a part of a healthy lifestyle, but the Apple Commission wanted to be able to prove it scientifically. To accomplish this the Commission gave tens of thousands of dollars in grants to scientists and doctors to research the health benefits of apples. The research proved that apples were of great value health wise, and this became a staple of future advertising campaigns.


Individual growers were still permitted to put their own logos on their apple shipments but the Washington Apple logo, along with a rating system to represent quality, would still be there.

More research went into discovering whether the “hot baths” the apples were subjected to were actually necessary. Originally intended to remove agricultural residue thought to be harmful to the consumer, these baths also robbed the apples of some flavor and damaged their longevity. After several studies it was determined that the “hot baths” were unnecessary and other less damaging cleaning methods were substituted. This discovery led to tastier apples that still protected the health of the consumer.

Success

At the time of the Commission’s founding in 1937, Washington Apples only accounted for 15% of the total apples sold in the United States. By the turn of the century, Washington growers commanded 70% of the domestic market and was selling in 30 different countries. In 2002 the Washington Apple Commission began to exclusively market internationally. Washington now exports 1/3 of its apple crop to countries as varied as Mexico, China, India, and Indonesia.

A continuing legacy of the Commission's lobbying efforts is the shelf design of the produce section of most supermarkets. It remains difficult to walk into any American supermarket without immediately seeing a pile of apples.(Shown below)

I'll miss "Outsourced"

Very few people were surprised when NBC declined to make a second season of "Outsourced." For the uninitiated, it was a sitcom that centered around a naive and overly enthusiastic mid-westerner (Todd) who is sent to India to manage a call center. The series included two stock characters which should be recognizable to any western expat: Charlie, a fellow American call center manager who has done his best to pretend he is still in the US (and is implied to be an alcoholic), and Tonya, a sexually aggressive western woman who isn't afraid to pounce on a man from a similar cultural background as hers. The five remaining characters in the ensemble are all Indian and embody sitcom and cultural stereotypes ranging from an unsuccessful horndog to a hard-ass manager.

When I first saw the commercials for the show I couldn't understand what NBC was thinking. It was entirely possible that it would be entertaining but I couldn't see what the target market was. There was a lot of comedy for people with an expat background and there were lots of situations that could appeal to Indian-Americans but there wouldn't be an emotional connection for the average person (as opposed to shows about working in an office (The Office) or having friends (Friends.) (See what I did there? ;) )

I can't criticize anyone for thinking it wasn't funny or didn't engage them- that's a matter of personal taste. What I was disappointed in was the amount of people who found it offensive because of perceived racism. To date I have yet to find (in real life or on the internet) someone of Indian origin that was offended by it; in fact, I'm pretty sure the parties that took umbrage at the show are largely white, have not lived outside of their own culture for long periods of time, and view "being offended" as their god-given duty to the rest of mankind. If you grew up in Boulder, CO as I did, you probably know the sorts I'm talking about.

The two American characters are largely portrayed as clueless about or uninterested in Indian culture. They make all sorts of cultural faux pas and their ignorance is normally played for laughs. In one exchange, which received an incredible amount of complaints, the main character is surprised to learn that Indians celebrate Valentine's day. This reminded me of an actual exchange from my first few months in East Asia when I learned about Taiwanese Valentine's day.

Nick: Wow, you all have Valentine's day in August?
Taiwanese girl: Yes, but we also have your Valentine's Day, in February.
Taiwanese boy: Yes, it is terrible to be a boyfriend in this country.

The Indian characters, on the other hand, tend to be most familiar with the negative stereotypes of Americans. The perceived promiscuity of Americans is brought up frequently by the Indian characters, as is (more positively) the less hierarchical structure of American society.

We Americans tend to self-flagellate for being nationalistic but our sense of humor is fairly self-deprecating. The Simpsons has become one of the most successful shows of all time, primarily because it is constantly making fun of American culture. That Indians, who are an increasingly visible part of American society, have the same capacity for self-mockery should leave us saying "We're not so different, after all," rather than feeling guilty about taking advantage of another culture. This is especially pronounced given that a majority of "Outsourced" writers were of Indian heritage and many of the East meets West situations came from their personal experiences.

The show had a small natural market (expats and Indian Americans) and the capacity to offend the vocal minority of Americans who calculate their IQ's by tabulating how many times they are offended per week. With those liabilities I was surprised that a full season of the show was made at all. Even if it had been spectacularly funny rather than just "fun," it was a big risk for NBC. Given that, I think the proper response to the show is gratitude for having aired at all rather than disappointment over not being renewed.


Please, please, NBC, find a way to bring Parvesh Cheena into another show!

The Red Menace

I was too young to remember Red Dawn's premiere in 1984 but have seen it several times since. It's a stirring and patriotic film about a group of high schoolers turn guerrillas who resist a Soviet invasion of the US. I was excited to notice that remake has been in the works for a couple years; this time with the Chinese as the villains. China is sort of the obvious choice given the tenor of the moment. Despite the improbability of a Soviet invasion we still watched the original Red Dawn. A Chinese invasion would be similarly impossible but it could still make for good, mindless fun.

I was surprised when I realized that all of the actors portraying Chinese characters were actually Korean- I wasn't sure if this was a result of Chinese actors not wanting to portray China as the bad guy or if it is more of a commentary on the average non-Asians inability to tell the difference between Koreans and Chinese. Either way it was also prescient.

The film has now been retooled (via digital editing) so that the North Koreans have somehow invaded the American homeland. (If I thought China couldn't do it, guess my opinion on the likelihood of a country with a GDP of $19 crossing the Pacific.) This obviously bodes terribly for the film... was it really so unintelligently made that through a few digital edits the villains can be changed from one of our largest trading partners to a country we have all but no contact with?

Either way the reasoning behind this seems to be a desire to get the movie into the (theoretically) lucrative Chinese market. This is unlikely regardless of the geopolitics of the film because the Chinese government only allows in a select few foreign films per year. American films can be bought on pirated DVD (with no money going to the production company) but they are rarely shown in theaters. This trend is unlikely to change as the Chinese government has been increasing its enforcement of anti-free speech laws as of late.

This also highlights another pressing issue for business in China: if the Chinese can build it themselves they won't buy it from us. Many companies have learned the hard way that the Chinese government only gives them preferential treatment in exchange for technology transfers. Once those transfers are made the foreign companies find themselves being treated with much less deference and much less favorable business terms. Hollywood has not picked up on this yet and is keeping its fingers crossed that the Chinese government will spontaneously stop acting the way it has for decades (and declares that it will continue to act). Of course, this means we are unlikely to see a Falun Gong or Tiannanmen Square movie, despite how interesting they would be.

Ensconced in anonymity (returning to America)

It's been about a month since I left Taiwan- most of that time has been in Arizona but there was a week long stopover in Tokyo too.

Since then business school has (obviously) absorbed a lot of my free time. That being said I've spared a good amount of thought for thinking about Taiwan and me, the future of this blog, and whether or not I want to go back to Taiwan or the Chinese world in general*- and of course I have yet to come up with any definitive ideas.

There are a few things that I miss dearly- the food, some people, speaking Chinese every day, my scooter, but what I miss most was the ease of travel and the number of places to go. In Taiwan amazing scenery and hikes were only a couple hours away and the public transportation system was great.

Here in Glendale we are in the middle of a desert valley where the strip malls outnumber the clouds. The most interesting place in the city might actually be the Thunderbird Campus. There's not a lot to do within walking or biking distance. It's difficult to not feel stranded in my own temporary home. At least there's a pool.

I did underestimate the number of things I'd become frustrated with in Taiwan. After a week back in the United States I realized that I'd developed a very thick shell in how I dealt with some parts of my daily life. It isn't always pleasant being obviously different in a culture which discourages differences. Many of my friends in Taiwan (local or otherwise) focus on the all the benefits that western looking people receive in East Asia- and there are many benefits, but there were days when I would have traded those benefits for anonymity, for everyone to treat me like I wasn't special. I suppose I could've just moved to Taipei.

That's what I've got here. Anonymity; the state of being in which I could walk into any store or restaurant and have nobody make a fuss over me or argue about who should try to talk to the foreigner. Having spent so much of my life entertaining people (theoretically) I'm surprised at how much I was lusting after just being a face in the crowd.

I'm still unraveling everything I think about the last few years but the experience of being a very visible minority in a somewhat homogeneous population was invaluable and I think we'd be a better country if everyone could have that experience. You don't gain a lot of insights on how to treat "the other" when you've always been in the majority.

As for the blog- I'm not in the ROC anymore so it's raison d'être seems kind of spent. It's still my home on the web though and I'll try to keep updating my six to ten faithful readers about politics in East Asia and anything else that I truly think is blog worthy.



*I'm predicting that I'll have to return to somewhere in the Sinosphere within five years despite being down on it at the moment.

Why would you go to 二水?

I've visited 二水(Ershui) four times since moving to Taiwan. That probably makes it my #2 tourist destination after Taipei. 二水 is mostly known for being the junction between the main Taiwanese rail line and a smaller rail line that was originally used for transporting lumber from the interior. A few of the stops on the small rail line are tourist traps or are cradled by amazing scenery so they get the bulk of the attention; this leaves poor 二水 under appreciated as a number of tourists don't even leave the train station before heading on to the more well known towns further down the line.

Immediately after exiting the train station you can see 二水's bike path which leads you past temples and rice paddies and eventually to a Formosan Macaque protected habitat. After nearly an hour on a rented bike I hiked around the habitat looking for some friendly monkeys but to no avail. The monkeys like mornings and I don't so we missed each other again. There were a lot of work crews throughout the habitat as well- they seemed amused at the solitary foreigner sweating through his shirt looking for monkeys at the wrong time of day. One of them pretended to console me and said that at least I'd brought the jungle mosquitoes a snack. I'm inconsistent with when I reveal that I can understand Chinese but this time I did and after some initial shock we they advised me to wear a brighter colored shirt next time- so the monkeys would be more entertained by my appearance.

Another three hours of biking brought me through a few small villages and past an unusually tall pagoda. My first time through the area we didn't rent bikes at all and instead hiked up a mountain to a village whose sole economic activities seemed to be selling tea and inviting visitors into an expansive temple complex- I'd thought about trying to repeat the hike but decided to save it for next time and with 二水 just an hour away by train there will probably be one more next time before I head home.

I stopped in 彰化 (Zhanghua) on the way home for shrimp, fried rice, and beer with a couple friends. I was exhausted and my face was caked with sweat and dust but 彰化 foreigners are the rural type and don't much care about hygiene.

Catching the last train home allowed me to talk with an obviously inebriated Taiwanese gentleman who complained that too many foreign English teachers were lying about being American. He jokingly commented that because Americans could be white, black, brown, or any other color of skin Taiwanese couldn't always tell if someone was a real American or a 假的 American. It was the first time I'd heard a complaint about America being a racially diverse country that I couldn't dismiss as racism- he was just pointing out that the age old way of figuring out what someone was didn't work anymore and with crooked smile he blamed my people for it.* He hopped off the train at the stop before mine and I spent the rest of the ride reading Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler (review forthcoming).

I'll probably be buying a camera this week so some of my future travel blogs will have some images.

I hope your Sunday were as good as mine!

*For extra commentary on this issue please check out previous blog entry "Who you are and what you do."

Who you are and what you do...

Did your elementary/middle school teachers wax philosophic about American culture demeaning the individual by focusing on occupation? More than one of mine did. Again and again, in school or in Church I would hear people talk about how we should find other ways to describe ourselves outside of our occupations. I won't argue that Americans tend to define themselves by their jobs but it is worth pointing out that other cultures fixate on aspects of a person that are at least as constraining.

In Taiwan it's very common for "get to know you conversations" to include detailed questions about your hometown/homeland and your family background. This stems from the understandable belief that who your parents are greatly influence who you are. This is different from the American emphasis on occupation. In the American perspective the choices you've made with your life are viewed as the most vital information about a person- while in the Taiwanese/Chinese paradigm the most important parts of you (where you grew up/what your parents are like) are outside of your control.

The Taiwanese/Chinese fixation on race as an indicator of who you are stems from this cultural preference. Until a couple hundred years ago (which only seems like a long time to Westerners) where you grew up and what your parents were like was easily guessed based upon your skin tone and hair/eye color. Where do brown skinned people come from? India. What do they eat? Curry. Therefore the brown skinned person in front of me is probably from India and probably likes curry- therefore I should assume she speaks Hindi and needs my help getting to the nearest curry house and I should probably not insult her by offering her Chinese food. You can apply this formula to lots of situations.

A lot of visitors/foreign residents in East Asia get frustrated at this paradigm because it impinges upon our sense of individuality. Sure I'm white, American, and of English descent but if you direct me to the nearest McDonald's (which more than one Taiwanese person has done without me asking for it) I will not respond graciously.

Of course you could find this focus upon family background and hometown in many pre-industrial societies- which is exactly what Taiwan was last century and what much of China still us. What puzzles foreigners is how modern Taiwan can seem on one hand- High Speed Rail, internet everywhere, 2nd tallest building on Earth, etc etc etc, and yet how concerned a person on the street can be about where my grandparents were born. Whether Eastern culture will change to focus on the individual as a result of the surplus options that are being shoveled at them thanks to globalization is anyone's guess.

One of the most rewarding parts of international travel is discovering my own culture. Had I lived in Colorado all my life I may never have seriously considered that large groups of people define themselves in the way many East Asians do. Beyond merely understanding this specific part of my culture I also increasingly appreciate it- I am an American, through and through. When I am getting to know you I will respectfully ask about your hometown- but what I really want to know is what you've chosen to do with your life.