BY LANDING on a group of deserted islands yesterday with a video recorder and a Japanese flag, a right-wing Japanese politician has reignited an old dispute and created new tensions between China and Japan.
The islands, called the Senkaku in Japanese and the Diaoyu in Chinese, are claimed hy Japan, and by the governments of both the People's Republic of China and Taiwan.
A bitter row over their ownership last year only simmered down after the death of a Chinese protester and agreement by Beijing and Tokyo to put the dispute to one side in their bilateral relations.
The landing, by Mr Shingo Nishimura, a member of Japan's main opposition New Frontier Party, is the first in a fresh series of freelance raids on the islands by nationalists from both sides.
About 20 boats will leave Taiwan on May 18th with 120 Hong Kong, Taiwan and American-Chinese activists to try to evade a Japanese navy blockade of the islands, which lie within Japanese waters, and claim them as Chinese territory.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mr Shen Guofang, told a news briefing in Beijing yesterday that the landing by Mr Nishimura to "inspect security measures" could damage Sino-Japanese ties.
This "is a serious violation of China's territorial sovereignty," he said. "The Chinese side expresses its strong indignation and opposition and will quickly make stern and formal diplomatic representations to the Japanese side. The Diaoyu islands have been a part of Chinese territory since ancient times."
The Japanese Prime Minister, Mr Ryutaro Hashimoto, was quick to distance his government from Mr Nishimura's group, which included the former cabinet minister, Mr Shintaro Ishihara, author of the 1980s nationalist treatise, A Japan That Can Say No.
The foreign ministry in Taiwan, which also claims the tiny archipelago, expressed grave concern over the visit and urged Japan to exercise self-restraint.
The Chinese government is angry that the Japanese navy did not prevent yesterday's maverick action, which threatens a much-improved Sino-Japanese relationship based on trade and investment.
The regrettable thing is that the Japanese side has not taken effective measures to stop incidents harming Sino-Japanese relations from happening," Mr Shen said.
The incident reignites the Diaoyu protest movement in the run-up to the takeover of Hong Kong by China on July 1st, a time when Beijing is keen that nothing should mar the dignity of the occasion.
Last September tens of thousands of people turned out to mourn Mr David Chan (46), who died when he and four other protesters jumped overboard from the freighter, Kien Hwa No 2, in a gesture of defiance.
Yesterday a dozen nationalists staged a noisy protest outside Japan's consulate in Hong Kong and demanded that Tokyo apologise for its war crimes in the second World War. Mr Cheung Man-kwong, a spokesman for the Action Committee for Protection of the Diaoyu Islands, said, "Very clearly, they are trying to invade the Diaoyus which belong to China."
Mr Albert Ho, chairman of the action committee, described it as an act of aggression and provocation against China and said they were now more determined to travel to the islands on May 18th.
The Japanese government said it would repel any future attempts to land on the islands and the Foreign Minister, Mr Yukihiko Ikeda, appealed for calm.
In a statement Mr Nashimura said, "We believe this landing on the Senkaku Islands will be the starting point for an awakening of national consciousness and the rebirth of a Japan with pride."