Unit 3 Lesson 2
China and Japan: new bedfellows?
China’s relationship with Japan is reaching a new stage with Mr. Hu’s five-day visit there, the longest he has spent in any country other than China. The visit is significant for a number of reasons. Contrast Jiang Semin’s 1998 visit to Japan when he demanded an apology for Japanese war crimes with this week’s talk of pandas and ping pong playing. Hu certainly seems to be moving to a new kind of relationship with Japan. Surprisingly, he is letting the past stay in the past rather than using it to color or shape the present. This represents a major shift in Chinese attitudes and one cannot help but wonder what will be next.
This attitudinal shift is not one sided. Recently, the Japanese prime minister broke with the traditional visit to Yasukuni ( a Japanese shrine honoring “not just Japan’s dead but also executed war criminals.”) The Economist May 8, 2008. Surely the restraint he showed is paying off in spades.
But what does this cozy relationship represent for America? It is, admittedly, a bit worrisome. China has now become Japan’s biggest trading partner and is hungry for all of Japan’s technical know how. Japan, for its part, hopes to help China with environmental technology, as they are often the recipients of China’s pollution.
Still all is not roses. There is still the wide perception of Japan as the enemy and throughout much of the Chinese populace they are still hated. The meetings this week, however, point to the beginnings of a new relationship. According to the May 8th New York Times, Mr. Hu concluded his visit by stating that, “As neighbors, and as countries with an enormous influence on Asia and the world, China and Japan have no alternative but to walk the road of peace, friendship and cooperation.” America would be wrong to simply ignore the long term implications that such a new relationship would offer both China and Japan.
http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11332789
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/world/asia/08china.html?ref=asia
China’s relationship with Japan is reaching a new stage with Mr. Hu’s five-day visit there, the longest he has spent in any country other than China. The visit is significant for a number of reasons. Contrast Jiang Semin’s 1998 visit to Japan when he demanded an apology for Japanese war crimes with this week’s talk of pandas and ping pong playing. Hu certainly seems to be moving to a new kind of relationship with Japan. Surprisingly, he is letting the past stay in the past rather than using it to color or shape the present. This represents a major shift in Chinese attitudes and one cannot help but wonder what will be next.
This attitudinal shift is not one sided. Recently, the Japanese prime minister broke with the traditional visit to Yasukuni ( a Japanese shrine honoring “not just Japan’s dead but also executed war criminals.”) The Economist May 8, 2008. Surely the restraint he showed is paying off in spades.
But what does this cozy relationship represent for America? It is, admittedly, a bit worrisome. China has now become Japan’s biggest trading partner and is hungry for all of Japan’s technical know how. Japan, for its part, hopes to help China with environmental technology, as they are often the recipients of China’s pollution.
Still all is not roses. There is still the wide perception of Japan as the enemy and throughout much of the Chinese populace they are still hated. The meetings this week, however, point to the beginnings of a new relationship. According to the May 8th New York Times, Mr. Hu concluded his visit by stating that, “As neighbors, and as countries with an enormous influence on Asia and the world, China and Japan have no alternative but to walk the road of peace, friendship and cooperation.” America would be wrong to simply ignore the long term implications that such a new relationship would offer both China and Japan.
http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11332789
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/world/asia/08china.html?ref=asia
posted by amyf @ 11:50 AM
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