To China they are the Diaoyu Islands, sovereign territory of the People's Republic. To Japan, which controls them, they are the Senkakus. Jeff Kingston from Temple University, Japan Campus, says a dispute over the islands has the potential to flare into a conflict. “Nobody thinks it makes any sense at all to fight a war over these islands. Certainly there are a lot of signs that would suggest that may happen and once there's blood in the water that's going to make it very, very difficult to find a compromise,” he said.