Japan calls them the Senkaku. In the Chinese-speaking world they're called the Diaoyu Islands. 

These uninhabited rocks barely merit a few unnamed spots on Google Maps between Okinawa and Taiwan, but they have become a symbol of a much larger struggle over who controls what waters -- and the mineral, fishing and oil resources that reside beneath them -- in the East China Sea.

On Tuesday, after Japan's Cabinet announced it would buy three of the privately held Senkaku islands for $26 million, China announced the arrival of two of its Marine Surveillance vessels in waters just outside the Japanese-controlled area, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.

Chinese Defense Ministry Spokesman Gang Yansheng lambasted the "nationalization" of the Diaoyu Islands, and accused Japan of repeatedly stirring up trouble over them. "We are watching closely the evolution of the situation and reserve the right to take reciprocal measures," Geng said, according to Xinhua.

The islands are just northeast of Taipei. (Image from Google Maps.)

Taiwan also announced Tuesday it was recalling its envoy, Shen Ssu-tsun, after earlier in the day admonishing Japan's top envoy Sumio Tarui for what it says is a land grab and a violation of Taiwan's territorial integrity, according to Focus Taiwan.

Officially, the islands have been under Japan's control since the U.S. transferred administration back to Tokyo following 27 years of post-War administration by Washington. But Beijing says the islands belong to China as they are part of Taiwan, which it says is a province of the greater People's Republic of China. And the Republic of China (Taiwan) likewise maintains that it exerts sovereignty over the islands and denies Japan's claims. 

Control of these uninhabited rocks is part of increasing tensions over important shipping lanes amnd resources in the East and South China Seas.

In the north, Japan and Russia are disputing the South Kurils, part of a band of islands between Russia's Far East and northern Japan that divides the Okhotsk Sea from the Pacific Ocean. Japan and China are tussling over territorial control in the East China Sea. And in the south, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei are involved in territorial disputes, particularly in the Spratly and Paracel archipelagos.

"China thinks of the South China Sea much as the U.S. thinks of the Caribbean: as a blue water extension of its mainland," wrote Robert D. Kaplan, author and chief geopolitical analyst at Stratfor, in Saturday's Wall St. Journal. "Vietnam and the Philippines also abut this crucial body of water, which is why we're seeing maritime brinkmanship on all sides. It is a battle not of ideas but of physical space."

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