Asia's new rift: asylum seekers

For years Japan has shown little interest in either the refugees from the North, or South Korea's sunshine policy. But this year, China and Japan are celebrating the 30th anniversary of normalized relations, a marker accompanied by high-level exchanges and protestations of undying amity. But the Shenyang incident is showing that, closer to home, both sides are quite willing to throw mud at each other. The mainland media, aside from China Daily, have kept quiet about the Shenyang incident. Instead, media have reverted to stoking public anger about Japan's record of occupation of East Asia during World War II. The subject is a perennial one, and a favorite topic is Japan's reluctance to adequately acknowledge guilt for such crimes as the massacre of more than 200,000 civilians in Nanjing.

As Japan's economy remains mired in an unending stagnation, some Japanese are not just concerned with the past but also with the future. While China is becoming their largest trading partner and an economic power in its own right, some Japanese are worried.

In Tokyo, a senior Japanese ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmaker, Takami Eto, is demanding an end to bilateral aid to China.

"China is extending economic assistance to Southeast Asia and Africa and expanding its [own] military," he said to a meeting of his faction members, according to the Kyodo news agency. "We do not have to continue to give such a country overseas development assistance. We don't have to curry favor with it."

The Shenyang incident may also offer Tokyo a way to show it can stand firm, too, especially on matters of sovereignty.

Six months ago, mutual suspicions flared up in another diplomatic squabble when the Japanese Navy sunk a vessel suspected of being a North Korean spy ship. China objected to Japanese efforts to raise the vessel, saying the vessel lay in Chinese territorial waters. The two sides resolved their differences but North Korea, along with Taiwan, remain the chief cockpit of regional rivalries.

All players – Japan, South Korea, the US, and China – differ significantly over how to deal with the central problem: North Korea.

Kim is disappointed by Japan's reluctance to engage with Pyongyang and support his sunshine policy. Beijing and Washington also differ on North Korea, with the Chinese supporting President Kim's soft approach, and expressing doubts about a tough line taken by President George Bush in his "axis of evil" speech.

Diplomats in Beijing are now waiting to see what the Chinese government does next about the refugees. So far it has allowed third countries to move the asylum seekers quickly out of the country to the Philippines and on to South Korea. Now, it may act differently. Two North Koreans who sought refuge in the Canadian Embassy have been allowed to leave via Singapore.

Some experts think China will now take more vigorous steps to hunt down and expel other North Koreans in the country and to seal the border with the North.

"China is going to stick with its North Korean ally on this one," says one Asian diplomat who requested anonymity.

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