UPSC Prelims 2022— Question 86

This question belongs to International Relations and tests Senkaku Islands Dispute. The relevant institution, region, treaty or geopolitical relationship must be identified precisely. Similar-sounding organisations and locations are common distractors, so each option should be checked against the actual international context. Option B is the keyed answer because China and Japan engage in maritime disputes over these islands in East China Sea. is the combination or identification that satisfies the conditions in the question. A useful way to solve the question is to separate the individual propositions from the answer-code combinations. A statement can look broadly reasonable while still being incorrect because it uses an absolute term, assigns a function to the wrong institution, confuses two related concepts, or places a feature in the wrong region or period. The keyed response should therefore be treated as the outcome of checking each proposition rather than as a memory-only exercise. Option A: It is generally believed that they are artificial islands made by a country around South China Sea. — this is not the correct choice. It fails the question's test because it does not represent the required combination, institution, location, mechanism or historical association. The distractor is plausible only if a related concept is confused with the one actually asked. Option B: China and Japan engage in maritime disputes over these islands in East China Sea. — this is the correct choice under the final key. It matches the relevant Senkaku Islands Dispute principle and satisfies the question's wording. Option C: A permanent American military base has been set up there to help Taiwan to increase its defence capabilities. — this is not the correct choice. It fails the question's test because it does not represent the required combination, institution, location, mechanism or historical association. The distractor is plausible only if a related concept is confused with the one actually asked. Option D: Though International Court, of Justice declared them as no man's land, some South-East Asian countries claim them. — this is not the correct choice. It fails the question's test because it does not represent the required combination, institution, location, mechanism or historical association. The distractor is plausible only if a related concept is confused with the one actually asked. The exam-oriented takeaway is to identify the governing fact first and only then map it to the answer code. This reduces errors caused by choosing an option because one individual statement appears familiar. For database use, the classification and explanation should be read together: the subject gives the broad domain, the topic identifies the recurring UPSC theme, and the subtopic records the precise knowledge point tested. This also makes the question useful for later topic-wise search and revision.