JAPAN-CHINA: Once-Testy Ties Take Somewhat Warmer Tone

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Oct 17 2000 (IPS) - Yet another reopening of historical wounds between Japan and China was what many expected from Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji’s visit here this week, but this time, such predictions were off the mark.

While Zhu did make reference to Japanese aggression in 1937-45 in China, before and during World War II, this time there was a palpable desire by both sides to move beyond that sore issue, political analysts say.

“The Chinese premier’s visit marks a welcome departure from former high level Chinese visits that have only deepened animosity between the two countries,” Professor Takashi Inoguchi, an international relations expert at the National University of Tokyo, said as Zhu wrapped up his six-day visit to Japan Tuesday.

Zhu, whose visit was his first to Japan since becoming premier in 1998, spent much of his time spreading a message of warm friendliness toward Japan.

At a press conference Monday, Zhu said the Chinese people appreciate the apology that then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama made in Beijing five years ago, for Japan’s wartime aggression.

He added that the Japanese people were also victims of the then military government, saying that bilateral relations should now look beyond an issue that has long filled mutual ties with mistrust.

China and Japan’s thorny historical relations also play a role in the rivalry between the two as leaders in the Asian region.

For China, a particularly sensitive issue is Japan’s invasion of the country in 1937, as well as the Nanjing massacre which resulted in the death of some 300,000 Chinese civilians. In years past, some Japanese had attacked the massacre as an exaggeration.

During his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, Zhu touched only briefly upon Japan’s wartime aggression in China, saying “bilateral relations experienced an unfortunate period in the modern era. It left a profound lesson.”

Zhu’s remarks contrasted with those made by Chinese President Jiang Zemin’s in 1989, when he focused almost entirely on the controversial issue during that first visit by a Chinese head of state in post-war history.

This difference was seen here as a sign of improvement in relations between the two Asian countries.

That change has been applauded in Japan. At a time when China’s emerging importance is watched with growing suspicion in Japan, Zhu’s decision not to focus on references to the bitter historical past of Japan’s colonisation of northern China has played well in Japan.

“Zhu’s determination to take the new approach is more than welcome given the growing low in bilateral relations,” opined Tomao Marukawa, an economist specialising on China at the Institute of Developing Economies.

Zhu set off from Beijing announcing that he intended to stabilise a “friendly, cooperative partnership” between the two countries.

A key proponent of his country’s economic reforms in 1990s, the 71-year-old Zhu is promoting a “softer” stance toward Japan in order to foster closer economic ties with Japan.

“Zhu has two important missions that interlinked. He is hoping that by building closer diplomatic ties he would encourage private investment from Japanese companies a top priority, aimed at expanding China’s economic growth,” said Marukawa.

Bilateral trade expanded 16.3 percent in 1999 to 66.18 billion U.S. dollars, according to the Japan External Trade Organisation. Exports have been increasing 16.5 percent to 23.3 billion dollars, and imports by 16.1 percent to 42.8 billion dollars.

Japanese companies have complained that they encounter trouble doing business in China, where is a large number of heavily indebted government-funded non-bank institutions.

On a public television programme on Saturday, Zhu told his studio audience of 100 ordinary citizens that he had been criticised at home for not demanding during his visit that Tokyo apologise for Japanese aggression in China.

“But this time, I have not demanded the Japanese people’s apology,” Zhu said on the television show.

A smiling Zhu and his wife, Lao An, met with Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko at the palace where a luncheon was hosted in his honour over the weekend.

Before the royal meeting, Zhu boarded Japan’s magnetically levitated high-speed train — an experimental venture — and got a taste of traveling at 452 km an hour.

Zhu had requested this train ride and another one on the Shinkansen bullet train to Kobe on Monday. He is studying the possibilities of China using Japanese technology in the planned construction of a high- speed rail link between Beijing and Shanghai.

Japan has been trying to sell China its Shinkansen bullet train technology, while Germany wants to provide its magnetically levitated, or ‘maglev’, technology.

In bilateral talks with Japanese officials including Mori on Friday, Zhu pledged to cooperate towards better bilateral relations and establish a dialogue on security and defense.

Under this, a hotline will be set up between the two countries. The Japanese Foreign Ministry said both leaders agreed to create a mutual prior- notification system for maritime activities in disputed waters.

Analysts say these developments are important when seen against China’s growing military clout.

Japan recently accused China of sending spy ships into its exclusive waters in the East China Sea. In retaliation, Tokyo delayed for two months a 158 million dollar loan package to China.

Inoguchi says while such problems continue to exist, Zhu’s more friendly approach is a big step toward easing bilateral friction.

China is also keen on Japanese techonology support in a wide range of sectors necessary for its entering the World Trade Organisation.

Said Inoguchi: “Zhu knows that confrontation will not work with Japan. This is only been demsonstrated by previous Chinese leaders who have not got anything much despite its critical stance.”