Sino-Japanese ties getting warmer in all-round way

Source: People's Daily | 12-28-2007 08:55

People were weighed down with some anxiety a full year ago when expecting the continued improvement of Sino-Japanese relations on the threshold of 2007. After all, bilateral relations have teemed with both opportunities and challenges throughout the year as it has undergone not only the 35th anniversary of normalization of Sino-Japanese ties but the 70th anniversary of the Lugouqiao incident, staged at the Lugou Bridge near Beiping (now Beijing) on July 7th, 1937, which marked the start of China's War of Resistance against Japanese aggression.

The common topics facing both nations then were how to combine the commemoration of the normalization of bilateral ties with the summing up of historical lessons, so as to truly imbue into the future bilateral ties the guidelines of "taking history as a mirror and looking forward to the future".

To date, those people who concern themselves most with Sino-Japanese ties have got a relatively satisfactory answer, since the relations between China and Japan have turned warmer in a comprehensive way, and the governments and people of both nations have embarked on a new starting point of mutually beneficial cooperation.

Premier Wen Jiabao made an "ice-breaking" tour of Japan in April this year, which signified the resumption of normalization for a high-level exchange of visits between leading officials of the two nations. Afterwards, President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao respectively had a couple of meetings on the sidelines of international conferences with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his succeeding Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, which penetrated dialogues on bilateral and multilateral issues and prompted the two nations to shape a framework of new strategic cooperation and its connotations.

With the growing betterment of bilateral political ties, the bilateral military and defense exchanges, which had been put off for years, also unfolded rapidly. Chinese Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan paid an official visit to Japan in August, which was followed by a four-day port call by a Chinese warship in Japan in late November and early December, and it was the first time a vessel of the Chinese People's Liberation Army or PLA, had ever visited the close neighbor. Substantial headway was then made in Sino-Japan security dialogue and military exchanges.

Such exchange of "burying the hatchet" or "turning saber into plough coulter" has injected the fresh power and vigor into bilateral ties. The first China-Japan High-Level Economic Talks held in early December was cited as a milestone event for bilateral relations. Furthermore, the year for cultural and sport exchange between the two countries was launched in the outgoing year, and the "exchange of soul" in the sport and cultural fields would practically fill the minds of people of both nations with friendly sentiments.

Then, can Sino-Japanese ties in the outgoing year be said to witness an excellent situation, in which "orioles sings and swallow dart"? While affirming the substantial progress made in improving state-to-state relations, existing problems are still seen to exist.

On the one hand, a possibility for Japanese political leaders to visit Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, which honors 14 convicted top war criminals during World War II, including Hideki Tojo, cannot be ruled out completely as such shrine pilgrimages can be a factor to deteriorate Sino-Japanese ties further and,

On the other hand, gaps or disparities in the social setups , ideologies and cultural values of the two nations as well as their different stages of economic development, have decided the varied recognition of the two nations in dealing with or responding to global affairs. Faced with the volatile international or regional situation, both sides have to keep up with the times, to seek a "win-win" magnanimity and to pinpoint and expand the converging point of mutual interests for both nations.

Take the case of the East China Sea issue. The joint exploration and development of oil and natural gas resources beneath seabed there has been made the consensus of both nations, and the active energy cooperation has created a sound, benign political atmosphere for settling the issue via consultations.

Likewise, whether China and Japan are able to launch other major economic cooperation projects would also be the touchstone to test the new-type cooperative relations.

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and his new cabinet have changed erroneous practices of previous Japanese leaders with regard to historical issues, and this change has turned into reality the bilateral friendly cooperation, which has been initiated by the Chinese side for many years.

At the year 2007 is coming to an end, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda finally decided to come to visit China. Glad tidings pouring in from Japan say that Prime Minister Fukuda would confer with top Chinese leaders on issues of coping with "sandstorms (in northern China) and improving the quality of water in the Yangtze River (in southern China). Indeed, the joint Sino-Japanese drive to tackle such issues, including one improving the quality of water in the Yangtze, and this would indeed be good idea and sound strategy for the expansion of bilateral ties.

China's tea and its tea-related culture imparted to Japan in ancient history, were subsequently evolved into the tea culture of the unique Japanese styole and, if Japan's present sophisticated environmental protection tecnologies are used to help substantially improve the water quality in the Yangtze, it would leave behind a fine, much-told tale for warming-up China-Japan ties of mutually-beneficial cooperation.

By Gao Hong, a noted research fellow at the Japanese Studies Institute affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and translated by People's Daily Online

Editor:Du Xiaodan