Moves in Japan 'could be explosive'
Lawmakers' announcement to visit controversial war shrine adds fuel to China-Japan row.
In the latest round of an escalating diplomatic tit-for-tat battle between Japan and China, Japanese lawmakers announced Tuesday that they would
visit a controversial shrine that critics say glorifies past wartime atrocities. Every visit by a Japanese prime minister to the Yasukuni shrine - where Japanese war dead, including war criminals, are enshrined - prompts strong official protests from China.
Also Tuesday, the Tokyo High Court
rejected demands to compensate Chinese victims of war crimes committed by the Japanese military in the 1930s and 40s, including the use of biological weapons.
"Such developments would ordinarily infuriate the Chinese, but in the current atmosphere they could be explosive," writes
The Associated Press.
Anti-Japan protests have spread throughout China in the past couple weeks.
Japan's refusal to ban middle school history
text books that critics say gloss over World War II atrocities has been widely reported as the catalyst for the protests. But
The Christian Science Monitor reported last week that "The
underlying cause of the protests is widely regarded to be a growing fear in Beijing that rival Japan may become a permanent member of the UN Security Council, should UN reform proposals be adopted in September."
In a separate report about how the text book issue is playing in Japan, the
Monitor writes: "The issue is longstanding, but not something that registers with Japanese as being so outrageous that it can provoke rioting overseas."
Despite requests from Japan, China has refused to apologize for damage caused in the riots.
The refusal prompted Japan's Trade Minister Shoichi Nakagawa to say Tuesday that he doubted China could be trusted as a law-abiding nation.
It is only natural for anyone to offer an apology and compensation if he or she damages other people's property. ... When there is no response despite our request, we cannot help but doubt (China's) reliability as a state governed by the law.
Another major issue in the current row is competition for natural gas resources in disputed waters of the East China Sea. Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's (METI's) decided last week to grant exploration rights in Japan's Exclusive Economic Zone to Japanese private firms.
Oxford Analytica suggests that Japan hopes the move will jumpstart talks about joint development of the gas pipelines.
The government's decision to grant exploration rights to private companies in the East China Sea was in fact a move meant to break the deadlock in ties, with Japan hoping to pressure China into cooperation. Japanese companies realize that the easiest way to transport the gas ashore will be by a pipeline to China, given the technical difficulties of transporting gas by ship from the field, and would therefore prefer joint development of the fields. Tokyo has hinted to China that this is the solution it prefers. But China declared the decision to be a "
serious provocation."
UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan has urged Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Chinese President Hu Jintao to talk things over at the Asia-Africa summit in Indonesia this weekend. "They have lots of relationships on all fronts political, economic, and social and I hope those important aspects of their relationship will encourage them to resolve their differences," Mr. Annan said.
Reuters reports that the summit
may be "sidelined" by the China-Japan row.
Mr. Koizumi, speaking to reporters in Tokyo, cautioned: "if it's going to be the exchange of harsh words, it's better not to meet."
Also...
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The Australia Broadcasting Corporation)
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Japan companies play down China worries (
Business Week)
•
Rumors surface that Japan may boycott 2008 Games in Beijing (
Japan Today)
•
Moussaoui planning to admit 9/11 role (
The Washington Post)
•
US queries Israel settlement plan (
BBC)
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