Number: 96-798
Title: Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands Dispute: The U.S. Legal Relationship and Obligations
Authors: Larry A. Niksch, Foreign Affairs and National Defense Division 
Abstract: New tensions among China, Japan, and Taiwan over disputed islands in the East China Sea are based on long-standing territorial claims they have maintained. The chief components of the U.S. legal relationship to the islands are: (1) U.S. administration of the islands from 1953 to 1971; (2) inclusion of the islands in the terms of the U.S.-Japan Okinawa Reversion Treaty of 1971; (3) a U.S. position on the claims themselves; and (4) the application of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty to the islands under the provisions of the Okinawa Reversion Treaty.
Pages: 5
Date: Updated September 30, 1996