China's effect in Japan-ASEAN long relationship

Kavi Chongkittavorn, The Nation, Asia News Network, Bangkok

For the past 25 years, Japan has had the unchallenged opportunity to build up relations with ASEAN. Indeed Tokyo was able to indulge in "heart-to-heart" diplomacy while pursuing half a dozen doctrines under the names of its different prime ministers that aimed for "harmonious relations" and "equal partnership".

Although the Fukuda Doctrine of 1977 was a milestone for Japan's diplomacy towards Southeast Asia, its noble objective of consolidating a relationship of mutual confidence and trust with the region remains unfulfilled.

Today Japan no longer enjoys its diplomatic monopoly. With China's growing engagement with ASEAN dominating the regional newspaper headlines daily, Japan is digging deep into its long history to find out what has gone wrong with its policies towards Southeast Asia. In the process, Tokyo hopes to discover some positive hallmark of their relations. After all, Japan has spent close to US$100 billion (Bt 4 trillion) since the 1997 Asian economic crisis to shore up the region's ailing economy.

With the Japan-ASEAN summit, scheduled on Dec. 11-12 in Tokyo, fast approaching, both sides are still groping for a common theme to capture the essence of their intrinsic friendship. Such a task has increasingly become a mission impossible. Why? The reason is simple. Whatever they discuss, whatever plans they make, the Chinese factor will also come into play, unintentionally or otherwise.

At a press conference in Bangkok at the end of the APEC summit, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was asked about Japan's response to China's challenge as Beijing consolidates its relations with all ASEAN members. He responded that Japan and China had different ways of forging ties with ASEAN, each country with its own track record to show the kind of ties it wanted. These ties, he said, are good for the region and complementary.

But Koizumi failed to mention that ASEAN was using its ties and FTAs with China as a leverage to maximize concessions from Tokyo. As Japan continues to cite domestic conditions as the main obstacle to freer trade, China has come out with a clear economic agenda and promotion of its selective free-trade agreements with ASEAN, Thailand in particular. In fact, this has become the norm among the ASEAN bureaucrats.

They have learned that to gain anything from Japan, especially in the agricultural area, they have to use the Chinese card, otherwise Japan will not relent. China these days has been aptly described by senior ASEAN officials as active, accommodating and generous.

Can Japan match that? Japanese bureaucrats would immediately reply in the negative. Ask Japanese officials, including Koizumi, about this sensitive topic, and they will shoot back that Japan is not competing with China but in a league of its own, having after all shown its sincerity over the past three decades in helping the region's economic development and human security.

That kind of persistent denial has had a devastating effect in sterilizing Japan-ASEAN relations further as China-ASEAN relations continuing to cross-fertilize and grow into "families with many children". China-ASEAN ties have been made even more significant given their eight short years of full courtship. Beijing has worked diligently to woo the grouping since the low point of their friendship in March 1995, when ASEAN issued a strong statement deploring China's adventure on the Mischief Reef, one of the disputed islets claimed by the Philippines in the resource-rich South China Sea.

At the Bali summit early last month China scored two touchdowns with the designation of ASEAN members as strategic partners, on a par with the US, Russia and North Korea. Beijing also acceded to the 1976 Treaty of Amity and Cooperation along with India. By subscribing to the regional code of conduct initiated by ASEAN, China has only won the confidence of ASEAN, placing itself ahead of all the groupings dialogue partners as a genuine special friend of ASEAN.

As China radiates confidence, questions are being raised among top policy-makers in the capitals of Japan and ASEAN on the true nature of Japan-ASEAN relations. Many Japanese bureaucrats wonder out loud what country's longstanding relations with ASEAN are superspecial if Japan's are not.

To its pain and dismay, Japan is learning that its own are indeed not. After all these years the grouping still sees Japan as a selfish, tough negotiator which does not budge and lacks an understanding of ASEAN thinking. Japanese officials, ASEAN notes, prefer to talk about obstacles instead of opportunities whereas the opposite is true for China.

This being the case, Japan is facing a dilemma to make the upcoming commemoration of the 25th Japan-ASEAN anniversary special and memorable. But there is only limited space for Japan to take initiatives, and some of these have been shot down by ASEAN. Tokyo has proposed the signing of a Japan-ASEAN Charter to serve as the foundation of long-lasting relations. ASEAN says no, preferring a joint statement, much to the chagrin of the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

The Japanese side is contemplating whether to host an additional summit, a special meeting with Mekong riparian countries Thailand, Burma, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, back to back with the Japan-ASEAN commemorative summit in order to hit two birds with one stone.

Some of the riparian countries have responded lukewarmly. Their bottom line is clear: They do not want to offend China, a powerful neighbor on the upper Mekong. Japan has yet to find a way to explain to China that it is not excluded, even though it is not invited to Tokyo.

It is high time for Japan to think outside the box. Tokyo must not handle Japan-ASEAN relations in isolation from ASEAN's general external relations. After all, this is part of the grouping's omnidirectional diplomacy. Japan must be proactive and more responsive to the region's needs and the Chinese challenges. At the same time it is to be hoped that the current pressures, coupled with the rise of China, will encourage Japan to take radical steps towards reform in its relations with ASEAN, especially in the economic realm. Otherwise Japan will be left in oblivion, supplanted by China.