An analysis of China's historical warfare: Verification of Chinese academic narratives about"Ryukyu"

An analysis of China's historical warfare: Verification of Chinese academic narratives about "Ryukyu"｜CITW 2023 Open Sessions
🎤Speaker: Takashi Hosoda (Charles University in Prague)
In recent decade, the debate over the sovereignty of Okinawa (former Ryukyu Kingdom) has become a focus of attention in the People’s Republic of China. Okinawa, where 74% of facilities of the United States Forces Japan are concentrated, is at the forefront of the U.S.-China geopolitical/geoeconomic competition that has shaken the post-WWII liberal international order. Hence, history pretending to be empirical historical research through critical analysis of historical materials is being used as a crucial device to legitimate Chinese narratives of the Ryukyu Islands. China’s hybrid warfare, especially in the cognitive domain with disinformation, is aimed at influencing global perceptions and behavior patterns to cast doubt on Japan’s sovereignty over Okinawa, although Beijing explains the tendency is not initiated by state authority but voluntary patriotic academics.
Verifying the historical narratives of Chinese scholars through critical historical material analysis, and evaluating public view of Okinawans on affinity of China and perception of Okinawa’s independence from Japan, are crucial to observe actual effect of the narratives and consider how to tackle China’s cognitive warfare. At present, there is no country that officially objects to Okinawa belonging to Japan.