China, Japan mend fences, but pitfalls ahead

China, Japan mend fences, but pitfalls ahead

Benjamin Kang Lim and Masayuki Kitano, Reuters/Jakarta/Tokyo

The leaders of China and Japan pulled relations between the Asian
giants back from the brink at a weekend meeting, but analysts
said bitter memories of Japan's wartime history and rivalry for
influence will keep ties fragile.

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Japanese Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi appear to have papered over their countries'
worst row in three decades during talks in Jakarta on Saturday, a
day after Koizumi made an unusually public apology for Japan's
past atrocities in Asia.

"The leaders' summit went well, in that they were able to hold
it. They avoided the worst-case scenario," said Kiyoshi Takai, a
professor at Hokkaido University in northern Japan.

"But China is saying 'match words with action' and that means
the discussions will again return to the Yasukuni issue. So what
Prime Minister Koizumi decides about that is the key," he said,
referring to the controversial war cemetery shrine in Tokyo.

Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper in an editorial added:
"What seems to have happened is that a band-aid was applied to
the wound to stop the bleeding. But the injury itself has not
been treated at all. The risks are high that the wound will
worsen and that it will open up again at some point."

During their one-hour meeting, held at the end of a gathering
of Asian and African leaders in Jakarta, Hu told Koizumi that
remorse expressed for Japan's wartime past should be translated
into action. The Chinese leader said Japan should "never do
anything again that would hurt the feelings of the Chinese
people".

Hu also urged Japan not to support formal independence for
self-ruled Taiwan, which Beijing has claimed as its own since
their split at the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.

Koizumi used both hands to shake the hand of a stiff and
expressionless Hu and told a news conference later that he and Hu
agreed to make efforts to develop the bilateral friendship
instead of aggravating antagonistic feelings.

Koizumi did not say if he would stop visiting the shrine which
has been the source of much of the friction.

"The differences in their standpoints are still quite large,"
said Zhu Feng, director of the International Security Program at
Peking University. "China still wants Japan to take concrete
actions, for example to stop the visits to the shrine."

Relations with China chilled markedly after Koizumi took
office in 2001 and began annual visits to the shrine. He has not
visited this year.

Ties between the Asian giants plunged to their worst since
relations were normalized in 1972 after three weekends of violent
anti-Japanese protests across China, putting at risk economic
links worth US$212 billion in annual trade.

The demonstrations were sparked by new school history
textbooks that critics say sugarcoat Japan's wartime history and
over other irritants, including Tokyo's campaign for a permanent
seat on the United Nations Security Council.

Around 300 people marched against Japan in the southern
Chinese city of Zhuhai on Sunday in the latest demonstration.
Police made two arrests.

Beijing says 35 million Chinese were killed or wounded during
Japan's 1931-45 occupation of much of the country.

The People's Daily, the mouthpiece of China's Communist Party,
said on Sunday it was understandable for students and the masses
to want to express their emotions after Japanese right-wing
forces had hurt their feelings.

But the newspaper added: "Patriotism requires strong emotions
but even more, it requires reason. When expressing righteous
indignation, the law should not be exceeded."

China launched a campaign to cool down tempers one day before
Koizumi apologized.

Chinese police issued a strong warning on Thursday that those
who took part in unauthorized protests would be punished and that
it was illegal to use cell phone text messages or Internet
bulletin boards to organize demonstrations without approval.

China also sent veteran diplomats to give lectures on the
benefits as well as the history of Sino-Japanese ties to
Communist Party members and officials as well as university
students, who were urged to focus on their studies.

Asked about Chinese government comments that action was more
important than words, Koizumi, speaking in Indonesia's tsunami-
hit Aceh province on Saturday, said:

"In the last 60 years, we have became an economic superpower
and not a military state. (We are a) peaceful nation reflecting
on the experience of the war."