Japan's top hawk ruffles China's
feathers By Li Jing
HONG KONG
- Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi carried out
his third large-scale cabinet reshuffle on September 27.
In the Asian and global spotlight now is the new
conservative foreign minister, Nobutaka Machimura, 59,
who succeeded the non-partisan Yoriko Kawaguchi.
Machimura is a member of the right-wing faction of the
governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), led by former
prime minister Mori Yoshiro. This perceived hawkish face
of Japan's foreign policy and its possible further
right-wing tilt has caused serious misgivings in
Beijing. Relations between China and Japan already are
strained and Machimura may not make them any easier.
It is obvious that the so-called Mori Faction, a
steadfast constituency of Prime Minister Koizumi, has
reaped an abundant harvest in the cabinet restructuring,
garnering other powerful positions, including those of
the chief cabinet secretary and minister for justice.
For a long time, China has been fretting over the
looming emergence of the Mori Faction, which apparently
tends to support the independence of Taiwan.
Meanwhile in China, the Communist Youth League
(CYL), riding high within the political arena, has a
vehement antipathy toward the Mori Faction. China Youth
Daily, an influential journal sponsored by the CYL, once
commented that Mori Yoshiro was a pro-Taiwan prime
minister in the mold of one of his predecessors, Kishi
Nobusuke, who patronized the Chiang Kai-shek
administration in Taiwan but refused to recognize the
communist government in mainland China after the World
War II. It is well known but seldom publicized that many
Mori Faction members maintain frequent but covert
contact with Taiwanese officials. Beijing even suspects
that Mori Yoshiro, when he was Japan's prime minister,
gave former Taiwanese president Lee Teng-hui the
approval to visit Japan three years ago.
Before
Machimura was appointed foreign minister, he was
minister of education, culture, sports, science and
technology. In March 2001, he approved a history
textbook that was revised by a group of right-wing
scholars in an effort to defend the Japanese invasion of
China in World War II; he hypocritically repeated the
cliche that the textbook revision accorded with the
requirements of the national syllabus, and gave a nod to
the principles of international understanding and
cooperation. Meanwhile, he highlighted the tenets for
history education and the principle of considering the
feelings of neighboring countries in reviewing the
textbook, reiterating that the Japanese government had
not changed its introspective and apologetic stance over
its historical sins.
However, the explanation of
Machimura still failed to pacify the outraged Dragon.
Guangming Daily, a popular quality paper among Chinese
intellectuals, attacked Machimura's rhetoric for
attempting to cover the fact that Japan's new history
textbook tried to disavow, whitewash, even justify its
unscrupulous invasion and war. The revised textbook with
some 137 amendments "deliberately blurs Japan's invasion
record, extols militarism, distorts the anti-fascism
wars by all Asian countries, and desperately conceals
the atrocities and enormities committed by the
militaristic invaders during the World War II", the
paper reported.
Some Japan watchers believe that
former foreign minister Yoriko Kawaguchi probably was
kicked out of office because she adopted a moderate
diplomacy toward China. Shortly before the cabinet
reorganization, Kawaguchi told Chinese State Councilor
Tang Jiaxuan that she expected the East Sea, known to
the Japanese as the Sea of Japan, to become an ocean of
Sino-Japan friendship rather than one of conflict. Thus
Beijing presumed that she was speaking for pragmatic
politicians in Japan. Yet shortly after those parting
words, Kawaguchi left the scene as Koizumi rearranged
his cabinet.
For ages, there has been a
persistent controversy over the borderline between China
and Japan along the East Sea, affecting the nations'
rights to exploit the oil reserves beneath the sea. This
year, China launched offshore drilling in the undisputed
Chinese waters of the sea, and meanwhile proposed to
cooperate with Japan in tapping the oil resources under
the disputed waters - but that proposal was rejected
almost instantly.
On the other hand, Japan
demands that China provide detailed data about the
ongoing offshore drilling, lest the oil and gas deposits
beneath its waters of the East Sea will be drained away.
Yet Beijing also dismissed that request, arguing that
China had no obligation to offer the confidential
drilling and exploration data since Japan disapproved of
co-exploitation and joint exploration. Later, Japan sent
an exploration vessel leased from Norway to prospect
above the disputed waters on July 4, which China
considered a provocation.
Today, Sino-Japanese
relations are at a critical juncture. Shortly before
Japan's cabinet reshuffle, a quiet earthquake rocked
China's political stage as Communist Party chairman and
national President Hu Jintao succeeded Jiang Zemin as
chairman of party's Central Military Commission, thereby
taking control of the military, as well as the state
government and the party. The moderate reformist Hu
Jintao is a disciple of late paramount leader Deng
Xiaoping and later Hu Yaobang, both of whom contributed
to improving China-Japan ties. Observers expect the
Dragon's torchbearer, Hu, to try to advance the goal of
his predecessors and mentors and improve strained
relations between the two economic powerhouses.
As expected, President Hu had made a series of
friendly overtures to Japan, such as recommending
co-exploitation of the East Sea resources, appointing
well-regarded vice foreign minister Wang Yi as the
Chinese ambassador to Japan, welcoming Yohei Kono, the
speaker of the Japan's Lower House, in a high-profile
visit to China. Prime Minister Koizumi, however, has
never been invited, because of what is considered his
militarism and repeated visits to the Yasukuni Shrine,
which memorializes war dead, including Class A war
criminals.
Some political scientists point out
that this is the right time to thaw the frozen relations
with Japan, while Hu Jintao, China's new military chief,
is enjoying a political "honeymoon" with the people and
the troops. Seeing that his second term will expire by
2009, Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian may risk moves
toward independence by 2006. Then the difficulties in
improving Sino-Japan tension will multiply, since Japan
may be forced to intervene in the potential cross-Taiwan
Strait conflict, as spelled out in the Guidelines for
US-Japan Defense Cooperation.
Further, China's
anti-Japan nationalism is expected to escalate around
2005, some observers say, before the Communist Party
convenes its 17th National Congress in 2007. Presumably,
any friendly gesture to Japan at that time will be
facing opposition at home, arguing for the need to
improve relations now.
Overall, observers worry
that the Sino-Japanese relationship will reach bottom if
it fails to improve in two years.
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