A look at the history of China and Japan relations
04/14/2007 @ 4:00 am
As Chinese Prime Minister Wen wraps up his trip to Japan, he stared in Kyoto and even took place in a tea ceremony. All this in an effort to try and better relations between China and Japan. Also please view JAPUNDIT contributor Overoften’s post on this titled Wen’s Day for a more detailed look at Mister Wen’s trip to Japan.
In light of this meeting, BBC News online has published an excellent report titled China & Japan Rival Giants. It has four sections. Firstly is the introduction. The report then is separated into these four topics:
History
Economic Competition
Strategic Balance
Cultural Issue
There is a good deal of information here on anyone who is curious to know more about China & Japan relations.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6552235.stm
” By agreeing to regular summits - the next one being a trip to Beijing for Prime Minister Abe in the autumn - they have a carrot to dangle in front of the Japanese.
The stick is the regular warnings, both explicit and implicit, that he should not visit the Yasukuni shrine as his predecessor Junichiro Koizumi did.
The Chinese believe the shrine, where the Japanese honour their war dead, glorifies militarism.
Mr Abe is unpopular at home. A spat with the Chinese could cost him further support among the business community in particular who see friendly relations with China as an opportunity they want to cash in on.
So by agreeing to meet every few months, the Chinese pile the pressure on Mr Abe not to step out of line.
The Japanese prime minister is forced to keep silent on whether or not he intends to visit.
Perhaps that explains why in the Diet, his applause for Mr Wen’s speech looked on television to be a little more half-hearted than that of some of his colleagues. ”
Things will get rosier so long as Abe refrains from premeditated acts of stupidity.
April 14th, 2007 at 5:13 amMark, it might also help if China stops whinging that Japan hasn’t apologised properly - the constant back-biting from it really does irritate most Japanese people.
April 14th, 2007 at 10:29 pmRaj - did you notice that Wen didn’t ask Abe to apologise when he made his dumbass remarks earlier this month or were you too busy taking sides out of bias?
Anyway, it looks like Japanese business leaders and Chinese leaders will do what they can to keep Abe from acting stupid, which is a good thing for Sino-Japanese relations
April 15th, 2007 at 11:45 am