Koizumi's shrine visits sour Sino-Japanese relations
29/12/2005 17:21
The year 2005 will end with deteriorating Sino-Japanese political relations
due to Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to the
Yasukuni Shrine. Turning a deaf ear to the criticisms and protests at home
and abroad, the prime minister has paid tribute to the shrine honoring 2.5
million Japanese war dead, including a dozen World War II criminals, for five
consecutive years since he came to power in 2001. Koizumi's action has
seriously hurt the feelings of the people of the then war-torn countries in
Asia, including China and South Korea, and badly damaged Japan's ties with its
neighbors. Reciprocal visits between the Chinese and Japanese leaders have
been absent for four years and this is abnormal for two countries with frequent
economic exchanges. Even worse, Koizumi's obstinacy on the issue of shrine
visits has brought all scheduled meetings to a halt, even on international
occasions, including the postponed meeting among Chinese, Japanese and South
Korean leaders on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) conference in Kuala Lumpur this month. Thus, the Sino-Japanese
political relationship has been at a low ebb over the years. And Koizumi should
be held accountable for this. Koizumi's shrine tours have had dire political
consequences as they have become a tremendous obstacle to the development of
Sino-Japanese friendship and cooperation. Only when the Japanese leaders take
a correct attitude toward the country's history of aggression and express
apology and remorse for Japan's war past, can the impasse be broken. However,
the Japanese leaders have been trying to justify the shrine visits. Japanese
Foreign Minister Taro Aso has claimed that "the only countries in the world that
talk about Yasukuni are China and South Korea" and Japan does not have to heed
their calls. Koizumi described the issue as "an invalid diplomatic card"
wielded by China and South Korea when giving his explanation for the delay of
the trilateral meeting. The remarks by the Japanese leaders showed that they
did not want to solve the problem and they had no respect for China and South
Korea. Such an attitude has dampened the hope that the freezing Sino-Japanese
relationship would thaw in the near future. It is widely known that the
Chinese and Japanese people are looking forward to common development and
prosperity. However, Koizumi's visits to the shrine have strained political
relations, reduced mutual trust, intensified antagonism and put the two
countries at odds. The situation has aroused concerns among the people in both
countries. The tension between the two countries not only hampers economic
exchanges, it may also affect regional stability and development, analysts
said. Trade and economic cooperation between China and Japan have already
been negatively affected by their tense political relationship, which has
started cooling down extensive business activities between the two
sides. Japan's 11-year-old status as the largest trading partner of China has
been taken over by the European Union. In the first eight months of 2005,
Sino-Japanese trade increased only by 10.3 percent, compared with the
23.5-percent growth achieved by China globally, according to the Chinese
Ministry of Commerce. The trade with Japan accounted for 14.5 percent of
China's total foreign trade volume in 2004, down from the 17.5 percent in 2000,
the ministry said. As close neighbors with their economies remarkably
complementary to each other, China and Japan are regrettably seeing their
economic cooperation growing at a slower pace. At the same time, the cold
political ties hinder bilateral cooperation on large-scale economic
projects. Economists have warned that it is hard to maintain the flourishing
economic relations between China and Japan as long as their political discord
remains unsettled. In order to put the Sino-Japanese relationship back on to
the normal track, more joint efforts are needed to address the shrine issue,
particularly positive actions by the Japanese leaders. China and Japan need
to conduct strategic dialogues and coordinate their positions on a wide range of
issues, such as the environment, energy and security. Koizumi's visits to the
shrine are preventing the two sides from fully playing their roles in jointly
dealing with international affairs. Japanese leaders should be aware of
this. Nevertheless, the Japanese prime minister has shown no sign of budging
on the issue. His persistent visits to the war shrine have manifested his intent
to distort history and glorify militarism. It is hoped that Japanese leaders
would not further follow the wrong path and go down in Japan's modern history as
people who have soured relations with neighboring countries.
Xinhua news
|