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Frictions between Japan and China surge

Tue Feb 15, 5:25 PM ET

By Tim Johnson, Knight Ridder Newspapers

TOKYO - Hardly a month goes by without new irritants in relations between Japan and China. Recent grievances range from a soccer riot and submarine intrusion to dominion over a lighthouse and the granting of a visa to an octogenarian.

The public mood in each country is souring toward the other, prompting some experts to wonder whether leaders will keep a lid on nationalistic tensions. Both countries are important to stability in Asia and the U.S. economy: Japan is the world's second-largest economy, and China is a new power after two decades of fast growth.

It might seem that the two countries have little to complain about. Trade ties grow more robust each year. Last year, China (including Hong Kong) surpassed the United States as Japan's top trading partner. Japan can credit its fragile economic recovery to surging growth in China.

But the two nations compete for regional influence and reliable energy supplies. Political relations may be at their lowest point in decades as Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's government becomes more assertive toward China, ending a policy of seeking to avoid confrontation.

Japan and China haven't held regular summit meetings since Koizumi came to office in 2001. Both sides keep putting off meetings, citing grievances.

"People on both sides see the other as potential adversaries," said Takashi Inoguchi, a political scientist at the University of Tokyo.

The latest conflict centers on five uninhabited isles, known by the Japanese as the Senkaku Islands and by the Chinese as the Diaoyu. The islands are in the East China Sea, 125 miles northeast of Taiwan, near a continental shelf containing pockets of natural gas.

Last week, Tokyo announced that the Japanese Coast Guard had assumed the maintenance of a private lighthouse on one of the islands, set up by a right-wing group in 1986 as a symbol of Japanese sovereignty.

China, which challenges Japan's claim to the islands, accused Japan of a "severe provocation" and said the move was "illegal and invalid" and "absolutely unacceptable."

Flare-ups over the islands have occurred in the past, but the stakes are rising. The islands, also claimed by Taiwan, include 11,700 square miles of surrounding maritime territory, rich in fishing resources, natural gas reserves and sea lanes critical in the event of war.

Japan and China already were jockeying over an undersea natural gas field in an area of the East China Sea where both nations claim exclusive economic control.

In mid-2004, China built offshore drilling platforms in waters that both countries agree are under China's control but within several miles of waters claimed by Japan.

Worried that Chinese drilling might suck up natural gas belonging to Japan, Tokyo's trade ministry last month gave a preliminary green light to two Japanese companies to drill in the area as well.

A painful history underlies current problems between Japan and China. Japan occupied much of China in the 1930s and `40s, until the end of World War II, and Japanese soldiers committed atrocities and killed hundreds of thousands of civilians.

Newspapers regularly complain about Japan's failure to clean up some 700,000 chemical weapon canisters left behind by its army in northeast China.

Chinese voice deep consternation over Koizumi's annual visits to the Yasukuni shrine, which honors Japanese war dead, including war criminals. Beijing says it's watching closely to see if he insists on going this year, the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II.

Relations have gone downhill following an ugly incident in Beijing last August. When a Chinese team lost an Asia Cup soccer match to a visiting Japanese team, police squads stood by as rampaging fans burned Japanese flags, taunted Japanese players and smashed a window of the Japanese ambassador's car. The rioting trapped some 2,000 Japanese fans in the stadium.

Many Japanese feel that China's leaders tolerate, or even foment, anti-Japanese sentiment as an outlet for frustrations as they crush political dissent.

On Nov. 10, Japan detected a Chinese submarine in its territorial waters and chased it away, drawing a belated and mild apology from Beijing. The intrusion was seen as a sign that China is projecting naval power deep into the Pacific Ocean at Japan's expense.

"China's military strategy has become even more assertive in the oceans," said Ikuo Kayahara, a former lieutenant general in Japan's Self-Defense Forces, noting that he believes China wants control of waters as far as the mid-Pacific Ocean.

For its part, China reacted angrily in December when Tokyo granted a visa to an 82-year-old former president of Taiwan, Lee Teng-hui, to spend his year-end holidays in Japan. Chinese authorities view Lee, who was educated in Japan and has long ties to the nation, as an architect of Taiwan's push for independence.

Last month, for the first time ever, the Japanese government named China as a security concern, along with North Korea (news - web sites).

Japan is discussing slashing its development aid to China, which has only recently dipped below $1 billion a year. Many Chinese view the aid as disguised wartime reparations for Japan's occupation of China and see no reason for it to end.

For their part, some Japanese voice frustration that they should aid a rival country that put a man in space in 2003 and will host the Olympic Games (news - web sites) in 2008.

"China can stand on its own two feet. They are not so weak that they need help from other countries," said Fumio Kyuma, a former national defense chief and current legislator from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Some Japanese laud Koizumi's more confrontational stance toward China as a sign of backbone. Others, especially in the business community, see it as lacking in long-term strategy and skill in dealing with China's expansion.

"The idea of an Asian rival is so novel that Japan simply doesn't know how to respond," said Kurt W. Radtke, an Asia-Pacific specialist at Waseda University in Tokyo. "There's a sort of uncontrollable apprehension about a rising China."

Very good read, GH. Thank you for the post.

I have been watching this situation in the news for the past few months. What I have seen thus far, has much to do with the jockeying for the Senkaku Islands and, in general, economic/political dominance of Asia.

Japan has taken a more assertive military and diplomatic role in the past few years, which I saw as being inevitable eventually. This is a nation with a strong militaristic heritage that even the brutal truths of World War II has not completely destroyed. It also has a vested interest in being the economic superior of China, and a leader in Asia....which it used to have and has lost to China in recent years.

While much of this is probably mere political posturing on the part of each nation, it still should be taken with some caution. Japan will not match China's aggresiveness militarily, for it has neither the resources nor manpower, but I do not expect them to tone down their assertiveness altogether either. It really is in the best interests of both nations to cooperate and be peaceable with each other, especially with Kim on the loose in North Korea.

Keep an eye on it.

Wow, I haven't heard anything about this until now. Historically, it seems to make sence what with their not-so-friendly past. I believe that while the economy of China continues to grow and Japan doesn't stop its slow climb out of its 1990's slump, the tentions will continue to simmer but never boil over. The countries, for the time being, have more to lose than gain in this sort of situation.

Also, the United States provides general security to that region what with bases and such. As long as we have a military presencein the far east, China will never move against Japan - and it's just our "job" to keep Japan from wanting to move against China.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081104/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_war_essay;_ylt=At_nBdm5eDyo3N5Qd2W3E3kBxg8F

The rape of Nanking was 'moderate', eh?