kick ~ in the long grass

尖閣諸島の歴史をEconomistが簡潔にまとめています。Deng Xiaopingが行った「棚上げ論」からの転換が今の事態へとつながっていることが分かります。

その「棚上げ論」をEconomistはkick ~ in the long grassと表現しています。言い得て妙です。
"If an issue or problem is kicked into the long grass, it is pushed aside and hidden in the hope that it will be forgotten or ignored."（UG）

http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/kick+something+into+the+long+grass.html

Barren rocks, barren nationalism
Both countries should turn to pragmatism, not stridency, in dealing with island spats

History always weighs heavily in East Asia, so it is essential to understand the roots of the squabble. China has never formally controlled the Senkakus, and for most Japanese, blithely forgetful of their country’s rapacious, imperial past, possession is nine-tenths of the law. Yet the islands’ history is ambiguous. The Senkakus first crept into the record lying in the Chinese realm, just beyond the Ryukyu kingdom, which in the 1870s was absorbed by Japan and renamed Okinawa. The Chinese emperor objected to Japanese attempts to incorporate the Senkakus into Okinawa, but in 1895 Japan did it unilaterally. After Japan’s defeat in 1945 the Americans took over Okinawa’s administration, along with the Senkakus. In the 1951 peace treaty between Japan and the United States, as well as in the agreement to return Okinawa in 1972, the

Senkakus’ sovereignty was left vague (Taiwan claims them too). The Americans say the dispute is for the parties to resolve amicably. Three decades ago that looked possible. Deng Xiaoping, the architect of China’s modernisation, recognised the risks. When he signed a Treaty of Peace and Friendship with Japan in 1978, the two countries agreed to kick the Senkakus into the long grass. “Our generation”, Deng said, “is not wise enough to find common language on this question. The next generation will be wiser.” His hopes have been dashed.

Chinese maritime power is growing, in ways that not only challenge Japan’s control of the Senkakus (but also worry other countries that have maritime disputes with China). Maritime law has evolved with exclusive economic zones around territories. So all the islets have become more valuable. The current squabble began when the right-wing governor of Tokyo declared that the metropolitan government would buy the Senkakus from their indebted private owner, the better to assert Japanese sovereignty. Not to be seen as weak, Yoshihiko Noda, the prime minister, retorted that the Japanese government would buy them instead.

http://www.economist.com/node/21560882?spc=scode&spv=xm&ah=9d7f7ab945510a56fa6d37c30b6f1709