OPINION: Spring sun over Sino-Japanese relations
The Jakarta Post, 15 May 2008.
As the warm spring breeze sweeps through Northeast Asia, hopes are floating high along with President Hu Jintao's just concluded visit to Japan, the first by Chinese president in a decade.
The charming President Hu chatted warmly with Emperor Akihito, enthusiastically posed with teary-eyed Japanese ballerinas after their white-haired lady dance performance that was very popular many years ago in China, visited historic temples that bear ancient bilateral history and amicably told story of Tang Dynasty's great poet, Libai, in front of young Japanese students of Chinese language class.
Hu also extended panda diplomacy by offering to lend two giant pandas to Tokyo Zoo, which just lost its 22-year-old "native" panda, Ling Ling. Ping-pong diplomacy followed when he skillfully cracked the bat with China's female gold medalist, Wang Nan, and Japan's gold medalist, Ai Fukuhara/Fu Yuanai, who received some of her training in China.
It has indeed been a long and cold decade for the two Asian giants. Among the tensions was former President Jiang Zemin's 1998 visit, when he bluntly criticized Japan's wartime atrocities during an official banquet attended by Emperor Akihito. Later, former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi sharpened the tension when he aroused Chinese government agitation by repeatedly visiting the Yasukuni shrine, the particular shrine most Chinese regard as an unacceptable veneration of Japanese militarism.
This had led to suspension of high-level contacts from 2001 until 2006.
An ice breaking moment occurred when former prime minister Shinzo Abe decided in 2006 to choose China as the first country to visit once he assumed office. An ice melting period occurred the following year, when Premier Wen Jiabao visited Japan in April and Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda visited China in December. This year, President Hu's "warm spring visit" also marks the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Peace and Friendship, which was initiated by Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's father, former prime minister Takeo Fukuda, who also had invited former premier Deng Xiaoping to be the first Chinese state leader ever to visit Japan, in October 1978.
The fourth political document signed during this trip covers areas of energy security with sustainable technology exchanges, China's regional development, business cooperation on large, small and medium enterprises and cooperation to advance regional and global economic affairs.
Worth noting of Hu's recent visit is the minimal direct mention of Japan war history, either in the political document or in Hu's speech at Waseda University. Both countries seem willing to put bitter history behind and move forward in dealing with a new strategic constellation of the Asian region in particular and the world in general.
Protests surrounding Tibet issues occurred in Tokyo outside the meeting. Fukuda tactfully asked Hu about the situation in Tibet, without humiliating his guest by outward criticism in front of the media, and Hu had equal tact in responding by explaining the positive process of dialogue with the Dalai Lama's representatives.
A growing realization among both countries' top leaders of expanding bilateral economic exchanges, pressing multifaceted security issues in the region and concerns over Japan's own prolonged economic stagnation and the United States' recent economic slowdown and constant preoccupation with Iraq have colored the spring visit.
With bilateral trade increasing 12 percent to US$236.6 billion last year, China has now become Japan's top trading partner, surpassing the United States. Japan has been China's top trading partner since 1993 and in 2007 became its third-biggest trading partner. Bilateral trade enjoys double digit growth every year. China's ministry of commerce indicated that Japan's investment in China had reached US$60.7 billion by 2007. On the security issue, North Korea's erratic behavior continues to pose a direct threat to Japan and also a looming threat to stability of the Northeast Asian region.
It is nice indeed to see the two giants frolicking together under the warm spring sun. For the first time in history that the two giants seem to have equal might, the competition is wrested on a different yet more worrying level for countries around the region. To the exasperation of many countries, past bickering occurred so often that they appeared to have egotistically disregarded the impacts on the surrounding region just for the sake of back-biting.
Past concerns will need to be resolved more strategically and less emotionally. Japan has watched with anxiety the double digit growth of the Chinese military budget for 19 uninterrupted years and China's nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles. China has been irked by Japan's unclear stance on Taiwan and the presence of U.S. military bases in Japan territory as well as the discussion to reactivate Japan's military. There are still disputes over natural gas fields in the East China Sea and territorial disputes of Senkaku and Diaoyu islands.
It is within the interests of Indonesia to contextualize the bilateral relations into a regional setting in which we can contribute strategically through ASEAN structure, while at the same time crafting our strategic partnership with China and Japan bilaterally. Japan is as important to us as China and the participation of both countries is imperative to the formation of solid regional architectures, which currently suffer from the competition of the two giants and our own wobbly capacity in delivering strong leadership in ASEAN.
China and Japan, together with ASEAN member countries, facilitated by Indonesia, and along with dialogue partners like South Korea, Australia, India, etc., must be able to exchange dialogue in order to share the vision of a strong East Asia. The existing regional architectures -- ASEAN, ARF, APEC, and the East Asia Summit -- must be shaped in such ways that will enhance each of their unique strategic values based on relevant spheres -- be that economic, political or sociocultural -- not at the expense of the other.
This is indeed a huge task and it may start from stronger, closer and emotion-free Sino-Japanese relations.
As the warm spring breeze sweeps through Northeast Asia, hopes are floating high along with President Hu Jintao's just concluded visit to Japan, the first by Chinese president in a decade.
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| Chinese President Hu Jintao (L) toasts with Japanese Emperor Akihito during a state banquet at the Imperial palace in Tokyo |
Hu also extended panda diplomacy by offering to lend two giant pandas to Tokyo Zoo, which just lost its 22-year-old "native" panda, Ling Ling. Ping-pong diplomacy followed when he skillfully cracked the bat with China's female gold medalist, Wang Nan, and Japan's gold medalist, Ai Fukuhara/Fu Yuanai, who received some of her training in China.
It has indeed been a long and cold decade for the two Asian giants. Among the tensions was former President Jiang Zemin's 1998 visit, when he bluntly criticized Japan's wartime atrocities during an official banquet attended by Emperor Akihito. Later, former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi sharpened the tension when he aroused Chinese government agitation by repeatedly visiting the Yasukuni shrine, the particular shrine most Chinese regard as an unacceptable veneration of Japanese militarism.
This had led to suspension of high-level contacts from 2001 until 2006.
An ice breaking moment occurred when former prime minister Shinzo Abe decided in 2006 to choose China as the first country to visit once he assumed office. An ice melting period occurred the following year, when Premier Wen Jiabao visited Japan in April and Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda visited China in December. This year, President Hu's "warm spring visit" also marks the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Peace and Friendship, which was initiated by Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's father, former prime minister Takeo Fukuda, who also had invited former premier Deng Xiaoping to be the first Chinese state leader ever to visit Japan, in October 1978.
The fourth political document signed during this trip covers areas of energy security with sustainable technology exchanges, China's regional development, business cooperation on large, small and medium enterprises and cooperation to advance regional and global economic affairs.
Worth noting of Hu's recent visit is the minimal direct mention of Japan war history, either in the political document or in Hu's speech at Waseda University. Both countries seem willing to put bitter history behind and move forward in dealing with a new strategic constellation of the Asian region in particular and the world in general.
Protests surrounding Tibet issues occurred in Tokyo outside the meeting. Fukuda tactfully asked Hu about the situation in Tibet, without humiliating his guest by outward criticism in front of the media, and Hu had equal tact in responding by explaining the positive process of dialogue with the Dalai Lama's representatives.
A growing realization among both countries' top leaders of expanding bilateral economic exchanges, pressing multifaceted security issues in the region and concerns over Japan's own prolonged economic stagnation and the United States' recent economic slowdown and constant preoccupation with Iraq have colored the spring visit.
With bilateral trade increasing 12 percent to US$236.6 billion last year, China has now become Japan's top trading partner, surpassing the United States. Japan has been China's top trading partner since 1993 and in 2007 became its third-biggest trading partner. Bilateral trade enjoys double digit growth every year. China's ministry of commerce indicated that Japan's investment in China had reached US$60.7 billion by 2007. On the security issue, North Korea's erratic behavior continues to pose a direct threat to Japan and also a looming threat to stability of the Northeast Asian region.
It is nice indeed to see the two giants frolicking together under the warm spring sun. For the first time in history that the two giants seem to have equal might, the competition is wrested on a different yet more worrying level for countries around the region. To the exasperation of many countries, past bickering occurred so often that they appeared to have egotistically disregarded the impacts on the surrounding region just for the sake of back-biting.
Past concerns will need to be resolved more strategically and less emotionally. Japan has watched with anxiety the double digit growth of the Chinese military budget for 19 uninterrupted years and China's nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles. China has been irked by Japan's unclear stance on Taiwan and the presence of U.S. military bases in Japan territory as well as the discussion to reactivate Japan's military. There are still disputes over natural gas fields in the East China Sea and territorial disputes of Senkaku and Diaoyu islands.
It is within the interests of Indonesia to contextualize the bilateral relations into a regional setting in which we can contribute strategically through ASEAN structure, while at the same time crafting our strategic partnership with China and Japan bilaterally. Japan is as important to us as China and the participation of both countries is imperative to the formation of solid regional architectures, which currently suffer from the competition of the two giants and our own wobbly capacity in delivering strong leadership in ASEAN.
China and Japan, together with ASEAN member countries, facilitated by Indonesia, and along with dialogue partners like South Korea, Australia, India, etc., must be able to exchange dialogue in order to share the vision of a strong East Asia. The existing regional architectures -- ASEAN, ARF, APEC, and the East Asia Summit -- must be shaped in such ways that will enhance each of their unique strategic values based on relevant spheres -- be that economic, political or sociocultural -- not at the expense of the other.
This is indeed a huge task and it may start from stronger, closer and emotion-free Sino-Japanese relations.
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