The main question is what this is really about: a detained Chinese fishing captain, or the Senkaku Islands? China is saying that "various reasons" have caused Li Jianguo, The Vice-chair of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, to delay a trip that had been planned in conjunction with Japan's lower house of parliament. But it all comes down to the detention of one of their citizens.
The situation is a little strange, because Japan has released the other 14 members of the vessel's crew yesterday. Keeping the captain detained seems to be a much more political move. The dispute over the islands where the incident occurred has been brought to light once again, a constant sore between China and Japan: The Senkaku Islands.
Also known to the Chinese as the Diaoyu Islands, they are claimed by both countries, a dispute which leads back to the late 19th century, when Japan defeated China in the Sino-Japanese War of 1895. Among many concessions the Chinese made after their defeat were the Diaoyu Islands. China has always felt a sore spot when remembering their defeat at the hands of the Japanese then, and developed a strong dislike of them after the events at Nanjing, when the Japanese massacred untold thousands of people in their invasion of Manchuria.
Although relations between the two have stabilized in recent years, tempers were known to flare when previous Japanese Prime Ministers, especially Ichiro Koizumi, would visit the Yasukuni Shrine, a memorial to Japanese war heroes of WWII.
According to BBC News, the Japanese have been increasing their presence around the islands in recent years due to growth in both Chinese and Taiwanese regional strength
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