Rapprochement of Japan-China Ties: Politics and Economics  -By Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal 

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I

Japan and China, the world's second and third-biggest economies respectively (after the United States - now undergoing severe recession), have been in recent years trying to boost their ties and, under the current financial crunch, are hoping to work together to combat the global downturn. As part of ongoing rapprochement processes between the former ideological foes, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso is in Beijing for a visit expected to focus primarily on the economy. The economic gear-up in the bilateral relationship between them has been stepped up in spite of the territorial and other serious irritants. Japanese Prime Minister Yauo Fukuda hosted Chinese President Hu Jintao during the historic summit the two held in Tokyo recently.

Japanese Premier Aso will meet with his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao on May 01, and President Hu Jintao the next day. Economic ties are expected to dominate talks, along with efforts to develop joint energy reserves and combat an outbreak of swine flu. North Korea may also be on the agenda. Japan is keen to enlist Chinese help in persuading Pyongyang to return to six-nation talks on its nuclear program. North Korea walked away from the negotiating table in the wake of UN criticism over its rocket launch earlier this month and ejected all monitors from the country. Pyongyang said it would be compelled to take self-defense measures "including nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests" if no apology was made.

When North Korea launched its rocket on 5 April, the launch was seen by the US and others as a disguised missile test. North Korea conducted its first and only nuclear test in 2006. Pyongyang has since announced that it has started reprocessing spent fuel rods at its Yongbyon nuclear plant. The reprocessing is a possible move towards producing weapons-grade plutonium. North Korea had partially dismantled its nuclear reactor under a deal agreed at international talks in early 2007, in which it was also promised fuel aid.

Beijing confirmed Aso's visit on 29 and 30 April in a foreign ministry statement. The visit comes at a sensitive time for China-Japan relations.  Last week Aso sent an offering to the controversial Yasukuni war shrine, which Beijing sees as a symbol of Japan's past militarism. It comes despite recent Chinese criticism of Aso for sending a gift to a shrine where some Japanese World War II criminals are honored. The Yasukuni shrine is seen by Japan's neighbors, including China, as a symbol of the nation's past militarism. At the time, Aso - who has avoided going to the shrine in person - said he wanted to express his "appreciation and respect as a Japanese national to the people who sacrificed their precious lives for the country".

Last year, Japan's air force chief was sacked over an essay in which he appeared to question his country's accepted role as an aggressor in World War II. Japan expressed remorse for its wartime actions in 1995, and followed with another apology a decade later. But the entry that won General Toshio Tamogami an essay competition described Japan as a victim. The essay said Japan had only occupied China to secure rights it had obtained under various treaties. It also portrayed Korea under Japanese rule as prosperous and safe. Disputes over wartime history often stir tensions between Tokyo and Beijing, but his swift dismissal should ensure no lasting damage is done to relations between Japan and its neighbors.

 Beijing had expressed "serious concern and dissatisfaction" to Japan through official channels for the shrine offering. Japan should "take a responsible attitude toward safeguarding China-Japan relations". Aso did not actually visit the shrine, but sent a plant which he said expressed his "appreciation and respect as a Japanese national to the people who sacrificed their precious lives for the country". Previous prime ministers have stirred regional tensions by visiting Yasukuni - which honors Japan's war dead, including 14 people convicted as Class A war criminals after World War II. Repeated visits by former premier Junichiro Koizumi caused anger in South Korea and China, where there remains a widely-held conviction that Japan has not atoned properly for its war-time crimes. China deeply resents Japan's brutal occupation from 1931 to 1945.

II

China and Japan have been separated by only a narrow strip of water, but they never had calm, let alone  friendly, relationships. Japan's long chain of invasions and war crimes in China between 1894 and 1945 as well as modern Japan's attitude towards its past are major issues affecting current and likely, future Sino-Japanese relations. Sino-Japanese relations made considerable progress in the 1980s. The General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Hu Yaobang, visited Japan in November 1983, and Prime Minister Nakasone reciprocated by visiting the PRC in March 1984. While Japanese enthusiasm for the Chinese market reached highs and lows, broad strategic considerations in the 1980s steadied Tokyo's policy toward Beijing. In fact, Japan's heavy involvement in the PRC's economic modernization reflected in part a determination to encourage peaceful domestic development in the PRC, to draw the PRC into gradually expanding links with Japan and the West, and to reduce the PRC's interest in returning to its more provocative foreign policies of the past. In Southeast Asia, both countries play central roles, provided strong diplomatic backing for the efforts of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to bring about a Vietnamese withdrawal from Cambodia. Japan cut off all economic aid to Vietnam and provided substantial economic assistance to Thailand to help with resettling Indochinese refugees. The PRC was a key supporter of Thailand and of the Cambodian resistance groups.

Japan had been investing in the PRC during the early 1990s, and trade decreased during the late 1990s, but resurged at the millennium. The resurgence might have been because of the prospect of the PRC becoming a part of the World Trade Organization (WTO).The Japanese public is not happy with Japan helping China economically, as Japanese money helps the PRC to give assistance to many other developing countries, particularly in Africa, and there is no need to assist any country that can afford to assist others. In early 2005, Japan and the United States had issued a joint statement which "encourages the peaceful resolution of issues concerning the Taiwan Strait through dialogue". The PRC was angered by the statement, and protested the interference in its internal affairs. However, the "warm" relationship between the PRC and Japan has been revived by two Japanese Prime Ministers, Shinzo Abe and particularly Yasuo Fukuda whose father achieved to conclude the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and the People's Republic of China. In May 2008, Hu Jintao was the first Chinese President in over a decade to be invited to Japan on an official visit, and called for increased "co-operation" between the two countries.

Hu arrived in Tokyo on 2008 May 09 for a five-day "warm-spring" state visit, the first trip by a Chinese president to Japan in a decade. In order to broaden exchanges between their armed forces as well as defense-related education and research institutions of the two countries. The two countries also agreed to further their coordination in the destruction of the chemical weapons which were abandoned in China by the Japanese aggressor troops at the end of World War II. With a view to further developing ties, Chinese and Japanese leaders exchanged invitations to attend summits slated for later this year. Japan invited Chinese President Hu to attend a meeting between G8 leaders and leaders from relevant countries in Hokkaido in July and China has invited Japanese Prime Minister Fukuda to attend the seventh Asia-Europe Summit to be held in Beijing in October.

III

Sino-Japanese relations have come along way since the collapse of Cold war. While china remains one of the few communist states with a mixed economy, Japan has the world's second-biggest economy, achieving an economic miracle in the second half of the 20th Century that was the envy of the rest of the world. Its role in the international community is considerable. Japan is a major aid donor and a source of global capital and credit. Japan's rapid post-war expansion - propelled by highly successful car and consumer electronics industries - ran out of steam by the 1990s.

The Chinese government's commitment to sustained development, characterized by harmonious relations between man and nature, and greater emphasis on environmental protection, energy-saving and the better quality of economic growth will provide broad vistas for the economic cooperation between the two countries. As the second largest economy in the world, Japan has sophisticated technology in energy-saving and environmental protection and rich experience in implementing technology-oriented nation building strategy. As the biggest developing country, China has a market with enormous demand. Therefore, the two countries are highly complementary to each other in their economic growth and their economic, technical and trade cooperation have tremendous potential and will further develop in a deep-going manner.

Thanks to joint efforts by both countries, economic and trade relations between China and Japan have registered rapid growth since China adopted the reform and opening-up policy in 1978. During the 11 years since 1993, Japan had been China's biggest trade partner. In 2007 China was Japan's biggest trade partner, while Japan became China's third biggest trade partner, with their two-way trade keeping two-digit growth. Two-way trade climbed by 13.8 percent year-on-year to 236 billion U.S. dollars in 2007. Japan became China's biggest exporter and its fourth biggest export market.

Japan's investment in China had reached 60.7 billion dollars by 2007. Its direct investment in the country has also undergone a shift from processing industries such as raw material and foodstuff to manufacturing such as mechanical and electrical industry. Mechanical and electrical products accounted for more than half of their trade volume in 2007. The Japanese government has contributed to the development of China's infrastructure and environmental protection and its education and poverty reduction through Japanese yen loans and free aid. Recent years have witnessed rapid growth of investment in R&D, financial service, logistics and marketing, becoming a new source for economic growth. A large number of Japanese enterprises are doing brisk business in various industries and different regions in China, reaping sizable investment returns. While spurring Japan's economic recovery and growth, they help boost China's technical progress, and improve the management and logistic and marketing services of China's enterprises.

Among sovereign states, it seems so much easier for governments to lapse into confrontation or even conflict. The reconciliation efforts have limited scope as both have serious differences over many issues like climate change and global finances, etc. Essentially, the ties are used for enhancing security cooperation between the two Asian powers, especially with respect to their participation in the Six Party Talks on the North Korean nuclear issue and in the potential East Asian Community. The East Asian powers don’t have any political disputes. Japan tries to sideline the past for economic reasons and enter into beneficial ties with China, a gesture China also reciprocates in some measures. Chinese investors prefer key targets like those traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange especially companies that have an expertise in environmental protection and energy-saving technologies. China would focus on construction companies with experience in large-scale infrastructure and national-building projects - all of which are in exceptionally high demand in China.

Obviously, no one expects any tangible results from Aso's visit.  The US interest in China increased recently owing to the nuclear stand off with North Korea, an ally of China for decades. USA has been using all possible sources to coerce North Korea to abandon its nuclear program so that USA can “rightfully” invade Iran to appease Israel. Japan, a NATO ally of the USA is also busy pursuing the US agenda with China to persuade North Korea to down its nuclear ambitions. America is pushing its economic, political and military ally Japan into obtaining some guarantee from China on the nuclear issue of North Korea. Since North pulled out of international negotiations on its denuclearization, following the UN criticism, only Russia and china would be of any possible help to cool the North Korean temperatures, if not making it to renounce its nuclear program. Bush failed, Obama is trying.

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Yours Sincerely,

Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal

Columnist & Independent Researcher in World Affairs,

The only Indian to have gone through entire India
South Asia.