China’s renewed casting of doubt about Japan’s sovereignty over Okinawa is intended to create a handy tool for political pressure on Tokyo. Beijing can apply the propaganda tool whenever disputes between the two countries arise. There has also been a steady expansion of Ryukyu studies—revisiting the historical ties between China and the Ryukyu Kingdom—in Chinese universities. This pattern is familiar: whenever tensions escalate, Beijing plays the Ryukyu card. For Beijing, the issue is a low-cost tool for agenda-setting that complicates Japan’s historical narrative and reinforces domestic nationalism without escalating to direct conflict.