According to relevant media reports, Wu Jianghao, China's new ambassador to Japan, held a closed-door meeting with the vice governor of Okinawa Prefecture.
After the meeting, Okinawa decided to abolish the current title, restore the Ryukyu title, and claimed that the governor of Okinawa Prefecture had the intention to visit China.
When Japanese elites from all walks of life heard the news, they were terrified, and even the United States, which was far away on the other side of the ocean, was deeply worried. So historically, did Ryukyu belong to China?
Okinawa was once an independent Ryukyu Kingdom, which was annexed by Japan in 1879 and established Okinawa Prefecture. After World War II, Okinawa was "trusted" by the United States, and in 1971, the United States and Japan signed the Okinawa Return Agreement, and the Okinawa administration was handed over to Japan by the United States in May 1972.
The Ryukyu Kingdom winds 1,000 kilometers from north to south, with a total area of 3,600 square kilometers. Historically, the Ryukyu Kingdom was located between the island of Taiwan in China and the island of Kyushu in Japan, and because of its special geographical location and developed trade, it was known as a trade transit point in Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia.
China's relationship with Ryukyu has a long history, and in 1372, the Ryukyu Kingdom became a vassal state of China's Ming Dynasty. In 1429, the unified Ryukyu Kingdom still maintained a clan relationship with China. After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, the Ryukyu Kingdom continued to pay tribute to the Qing government. In 1663, Ryukyu was officially canonized by the Qing Dynasty, and since then, Ryukyu has used the Qing Dynasty year name to pay tribute to the Qing Dynasty, and successive Ryukyu kingdoms have requested canonization from the Qing Emperor without interruption.
In 1609, Japan invaded the Ryukyu Kingdom and forced it to pay tribute to Japan. Later, two factions were formed within the Ryukyu Kingdom, one advocating pro-Japan and the other advocating pro-China. In 1872, the Japanese government took the opportunity to weaken the status of the Ryukyu kingdom and downgraded the administrative rank of the Ryukyu to a provincial administrative unit. In July 1875, Japan forced the Ryukyu Kingdom to stop paying tribute to the Qing government and switch to Japanese names. The fall of the Ryukyu Kingdom in 1879 was radical in Japan, which abolished the name of the Ryukyu provincial administrative unit and forcibly incorporated the Ryukyu into Japan and established Okinawa Prefecture.
Recently, Japan has repeatedly created topics around China, meddled in the affairs of the South China Sea, interfered in the Taiwan issue, threatened that "if something happens to Taiwan, it has something to do with Japan," and has also continuously taken radical military actions, greatly increasing defense spending, and expanding armaments, in an attempt to prevent the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
It is not clear whether this closed-door meeting with the governor of Okinawa was a retaliatory measure against Japan to provoke China, but what we want to say is that both the Taiwan issue and the South China Sea issue are China's family affairs, and Japan has no right to interfere.