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China, Japan should shuck victim
mentality
By Fan Li
(Used by permission of Pacific Forum CSIS)
TOKYO - The fate of the six-party talks
has been the center of attention in East Asia
since Pyongyang's February 10 announcement that it
was suspending participation in the talks and that
it had nuclear weapons. The world holds high
expectations for China and sees it as an
indispensable player in helping to solve the North
Korean nuclear crisis.
Spreading
anti-Japanese demonstrations and a boycott of
Japanese products in China, however, suggest that
China may have other priorities. Two weeks ago, a
Chinese student online community launched a survey
of the younger generation's thinking about the
world. When asked which country is least
trustworthy, 73% of the 27,000 respondents named
Japan, followed by the United States, Russia and
India. North Korea was not even on the list.
Nuclear bombs may be hidden in North
Korean leader Kim Jong-il's back yard, but a
revised textbook that "whitewashes" Japan's
wartime crimes in Asia, Prime Minister Koizumi
Junichiro's annual visits to Yasukuni Shrine (he
did not go this year), and a defense program that
identifies China as a potential threat are
visible. So why shouldn't Chinese be more
concerned about the "Japan threat", especially if,
judging from the old friendship between China and
North Korea, it's very unlikely that North Korea
would use nuclear weapons against China?
One can argue that anti-Japanese sentiment
in China is not news. But the backward moves
between Japan and South Korea caused by
territorial conflicts over the Takeshima Islands
(Tokdo or Dokto in Korean) is a big blow to the
honeymoon in relations since the two nations
co-hosted the 2002 World Cup soccer final, and
they appear to have undone the goodwill created by
the culture boom known as "Han-Ryu" in Japan. If
the deadlock over the sovereignty of the Northern
Territories, occupied by the Soviet Union at the
end of World War II, is added, it looks as if
Japan is taking the lead in a fight with three
members of the six-party-talks.
It's not
fair to force Japan to take all the blame. But
Japan's recent behavior has complicated the
atmosphere surrounding the multilateral talks on
North Korea, which is unfortunate for Japan and
the region. In Northeast Asia, history is not just
about the past. Unresolved issues, some going back
more than a century, cast giant shadows over the
continent at a time of rapid economic change and
shifting power balances.
Among all the
conflicts, the Sino-Japanese rift is most
important, and as a result can threaten the peace
and security of the entire world. As Deng Xiaoping
pointed out 30 years ago, the most important
bilateral relationship for China is Sino-Japan
relations.
The term "peaceful rise"
(heping jueqi) put forward by the Hu Jintao
administration sums up Beijing's goal of good
neighborliness and global responsibility. However,
there are doubts and concerns in Japan about how
the terms "peaceful" and "rise" relate to each
other, especially given China's exploratory
drilling in the East China Sea, submarine
incursions, and the exclusionary nationalism in
China. At the same time, China considers Japan's
hard work to become a "normal country" and obtain
a permanent seat on the United Nations Security
Council an excuse for failing to seriously address
its historical disputes with its neighbors.
In fact, these two countries are looking
in the same direction: toward a peaceful rise.
China has achieved dramatic development in recent
years, and as it comes to play an increasing role
on the international scene, as in the six-party
talks, it is only natural for the Chinese to
desire to make China both rich and strong, as well
as to reunite the "lost territories" with the
motherland.
As for Japan, it is now
represented by the Koizumi administration, which
is backed by a new generation that does not feel
it should be judged by misbehavior in the past.
Many feel the time has come for Japan to play a
more active role as the world's second largest
economy, a major sponsor of the UN and other
international institutions, and they say Japan
deserves a permanent seat on the UN Security
Council to justify and encourage its contribution
to international peacekeeping.
So what is
the obstacle? For a win-win peaceful rise, both
countries need to nurture a healthy national
mentality. There is no greater threat to peace
than the emergence of a major power with a "victim
mentality".
Traditionally, the Chinese
take the 100-plus years beginning in the mid-19th
century as a period of national humiliation. It
was a time when the once-powerful kingdom was
invaded and bullied by Western powers and Japan.
It was also the time when China realized, for the
first time in its 5,000-year history, that it was
no longer a strong nation.
These deep
wounds to China's pride take time to heal. The
fundamental reason lies in the Chinese belief that
it was "the Middle Kingdom" for many centuries
before it declined. A sense of cultural
superiority has been bred in the Chinese people
that makes it still harder for them to suffer the
humiliations of backwardness in modern times. It
seems that the Chinese care about their
sensibilities and dignity more than anyone else.
As China takes a greater role in global
affairs, abandoning the victim complex is a must.
Shaking off that complex does not mean that the
Chinese should divorce themselves from history. It
only means they ought to perform on the world
stage as a normal partner, and in a more open and
forward-looking mode.
Japan must rid
itself of this mental illness as well. Japan has
accused China of harboring a victim mentality, but
Japan itself is hiding in the shadows of the US
nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is
true that Japan was a victim as well as an
aggressor, but this does not justify Japan turning
its back on its history of aggression. There
appears to be a trend in which all history
textbooks delete facts about "comfort women" while
ensuring that they include the name of Yokota
Megumi, the missing hostage kidnapped by North
Korea. As a great power in Asia, Japan needs the
courage to face a complete version of its history
and it must make concrete efforts to improve
relations with its neighbors.
Nobody can
tell whether the six-party talks are the best way
to solve North Korea's nuclear crisis. But it is
important to recognize that this is not only a
process of negotiating with North Korea, but also
a process of communicating among the five other
countries. China, Japan and South Korea should use
this opportunity to build a stronger coalition in
East Asia.
Key to this process is greater
grassroots exchanges. Seeing is believing. It may
seem overly simple, but one of the reasons
anti-Chinese sentiment in Japan is not as strong
as anti-Japanese feeling in China is that more
Japanese have chances to visit China than Chinese
can visit Japan. The Chinese government began a
Japanese visa waiver program in 2003, but it's
very difficult for Chinese to come to Japan. This
is something that could be worked on and improved
by both governments.
A nation that forgets
its past has no future. However, that nation can
hardly move forward if it puts itself in the
throes of past humiliations forever.
Fan Li is executive director of
Global Links Initiative, a Tokyo-based non-profit
organization that promotes China-Japan-UK
exchanges, and is also a member of the Pacific
Forum CSIS Young Leaders Program. She can be
reached at fanli@glinet.org.
This article was used with permission of Pacific Forum CSIS.
E-mail: pacforum@hawaii.rr.com. |
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