Amid a long-running territorial dispute between China and Japan over a small group of uninhabited islands, the Chinese Communist Party's main propaganda organ is questioning Tokyo's historical claim on another piece of land long important to U.S. defense strategy: Okinawa.

The People's Daily newspaper on page nine of Wednesday's edition ran a lengthy and winding commentary by scholars at a prominent state-run think tank that called for a "reconsideration" of the historical status of Japan's southernmost Ryukyu island...