You do know that Japan and America has a Mutual Defense Treaty don't you?  The mighty  Seventh fleet (one of the USA's strongest btw) with 70 ships incl 2 aircraft carriers (just in case you don't know those are really dangerous ships) are deployed there to secure Japan from hostiles.  I doubt the PLAN Eastern fleet would find that so easy to crush!!! China will be able to defeat Japan, but not without cost!!!

Theres no pleasing the commies.

They would risk world war 3 for a couple of useless islands.

They already got the golden ones (Hong kong and Macau), what else do they want. Just cause something was chinese once, doesnt mean they have claim to it today. If that was the case, the whole world would belong to Portugal/spain/netherlands/england.

Thinking about it, the west would benefit from a war in the east economicaly... so go ahead. Indulge us.

I know right.

Well since japan is allies with the United States and Europe I can see this quickly becoming WWIII and China has Russia backing them.

No fears. USA has bases in Japan. We have their back.

Well it doesn't look good for us though, EU's economy is in shambles (only Germany seems to get it right) and Japan and the USA are so debt burdened that it would really weaken our resolve.  China is being bold seeing that it has the support of Russia and Pakistan (maybe even Iran) just in case crap hits the fan.  The only other ally the USA has in Asia (that isn't afraid of China or economically dependent on China) is the Philippines.  That one barely has a capable Navy to defend itself (3 Frigates; one WWII vintage, and a dozen Corvettes the newest being 26 years old) let alone help in assisting/defending the Seventh fleet just in  case they need refuge from the fight!!!  Don't get me wrong, the Philippines will provide refuge but I doubt the Phil Navy can protect the Seventh if they do need a place to hide just in case the war goes south for them.

Let them blow each other up.

Exactly, but the world is powerless to stop them.  They already took Tibet, the Parcel Islands from Vietnam, Scarborough Shoal from the Philippines, and Mischief Reef from the ASEAN nations.  This really reminds me of how the Nazi's slowly overtook Europe by taking territories a small chunk at a time.

I am Serbian. See my profile

The PLAN Eastern fleet is more than a match for our Seventh...it'll be a huge loss of life for all those involved.  The PLAN eastern sea fleet has 44 ships including 8 modern-gen destroyers, 30 missle capable frigates among others.