China-Japan ties hit 'new low'?
Japan's PM shrugs off high-level snub from China, but press reports emphasize its importance.
When it comes to the ongoing row between China and Japan, it seems that even fence-mending trips are doomed to end with very public, high-level displays of disagreement.
The latest round in the tit-for-tat diplomatic battle came Monday when Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi cut short her visit to Japan hours before she was to meet with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
Ms. Wu, dubbed China's "
Iron Lady" by state media, was the most senior Chinese official to visit Japan in two years. The two countries "had been
trying to smooth tensions ... after last month's violent anti-Japanese demonstrations in China over Japan's aggression in the Second World War," reports the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Chinese officials said Wu's sudden departure was because of "domestic duties."
But
The Los Angeles Times called the move "a
sharp diplomatic rebuke to Japan."
Even more boldly, Wu did not leave Tokyo immediately after informing the Japanese of her plans. Instead, she delivered a scheduled speech to a Japanese business group, saying "the relationship between the two countries is not satisfactory or benign." She then had lunch with business leaders, many of whom have been alarmed by anti-Japanese sentiment in China.
The move left Japanese leaders questioning the explanation and looking for some sort of apology.
"There was no word of apology," Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura told reporters. "Even though urgent duty may be unavoidable, there is supposed to be a word of apology, and without it a society cannot function."
Mr. Koizumi said he did not understand why the meeting had been cancelled, saying Beijing requested it in the first place, reports
BBC.
As for the real reason for the cancellation, Koizumi may not have to look very far.
Comments from Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Kong Quan "
made it clear" Tuesday that a snub was intended, according to
The Sydney Morning Herald.
Mr. Kong was quoted Tuesday by the official
Xinhua news agency as saying China is "
extremely unsatisfied" with remarks made by Japanese leaders. "To our regret, during Vice-Premier Wu Yi's stay in Japan, Japanese leaders repeatedly made remarks on visiting the Yasukuni shrine that go against the efforts to improve Sino-Japanese relations."
Last week Koizumi defended his visits to the controversial shrine, arguing that he has gone as a private individual, not as prime minister. "He has repeatedly said the visits are to honor the millions of Japanese killed in the war and to pray for peace," reports
BBC. China's main objection with the shrine is the fact that those venerated include 14 convicted class A war criminals.
As
The Christian Science Monitor pointed out in a report last December, "the debate over Yasukuni highlights one of the noteworthy features of Japan's Shinto religion, which
doesn't distinguish between good and evil when it comes to questions of the eternal."
As a pantheist faith, Shinto holds that every object contains a divine spirit, and all aspects of existence have the capacity to be gods. ... Because everything is considered divine, those enshrined at Yasukuni are also said to be worthy of religious adulation.
This, however, has never proved to be a sufficient explanation for China, which regards visits to the shrine by top Japanese leaders as a part of a larger pattern of the glorification of Japan's militarist past.
"The dramatic last-minute cancellation of [the] meeting between [Koizumi and [Wu] has plunged relations between Beijing and Tokyo to a
perilous new low," reports the
Asia Times "Beijing has given Koizumi a highly public slap in the face...."
Wu's cancellation has also sparked warnings from news sources in both China and Japan.
BBC Monitoring provides a
roundup of press reports from both countries.
Japan's
Sankei Shimbun writes:
Unilaterally cancelling a meeting with the top leader of the other country at the last minute runs counter to diplomatic etiquette, and China cannot avoid being criticized for a lack of common sense... Covering up or cutting off problems only results in creating more serious problems in the future. Japan's
Mainichi Shimbun writes:
If Prime Minister Koizumi wants to continue visiting Yasukuni Shrine and at the same time improve Japan-China relations, he must provide an explanation that is thoroughly convincing to China... Since the Yasukuni issue emerged as a result of Prime Minister Koizumi's personal beliefs, he needs to come up with a good idea. China's
China Daily writes:
Such visits are like a sitting German chancellor annually visiting the bunker where Hitler committed suicide in order to honour the Nazi leadership... Progress can be made if the Japanese government reconsiders once and for all Japan's wartime aggression, and realizes that anything associated with that shameful history cannot be honoured.
Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who met with Koizumi in Japan Tuesday, has said
something needs to be done to reconcile Japan's wartime past with Asia, reports
Channel News Asia.
Mr. Lee said: "Of course, there are some things in which we do not have exactly the same view. One is this question of textbooks and the Yasukuni Shrine. But among friends, we have to agree to disagree."
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