Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

China, Japan 'tense again' over drilling rights

'Silence, sulking, and suspicion' take hold of Sino-Japanese relations.

By Tom Regan / csmonitor.com

posted April 14, 2005, updated 11:30 a.m.
In a move that some experts say may hurt its chances to win a permanent seat on the UN security council, the Japanese government began Wednesday looking at applications from oil and gas companies to drill in a disputed area of the East China Sea.

The Associated Press reports that China, who says it owns the area in dispute, called the Japanese decision a "provocation." Conservative Japanese politicians, meanwhile, have already accused China of "ilegally" drilling in the same spot.

Relations between China and Japan have been particularly rocky lately. Last week, "startingly violent" anti-Japanese demonstrations were held in Beijing over a new textbook in Japanese schools that Chinese authorities (as well as critics in South Korea, and even some in Japan itself) believe "gloss over" the atrocities committed by Japan against China prior to and during the Second World War.

Voice of America reports that many Chinese websites had been calling for Chinese citizens to join the growing anti-Japanese demonstrations. Since the government so closely monitors the Internet in China, this may signal some official approval of the earlier demonstrations. In fact, The Christian Science Monitor reported Monday, many observers felt the demonstations had government support.

While described as a spontaneous rally, the organized nature of the Saturday protest seemed apparent to some observers. Areas for press, protesters, and riot police were taped off. Movement was carefully organized: crowds were sent past the Japanese Embassy, then to buses to usher them out. One policeman told an approaching reporter that a detour was necessary, since "political activity" had been scheduled.
VOA also reported that when Japan asked for an apology from China for the earlier attacks against Japanese interests in China, China refused and said it might use its veto power at the United Nations to block Japan's much-anticipated bid for a permanent security council seat.

The tensions also reflect Chinese unease at Japan's new political and military ambitions and competition for possible energy sources. China regards Japan as a rival for status as the region's dominant power. China and Japan are, respectively, the world's second- and third-biggest oil consumers, after the United States.

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that China increased the threat of its UN veto by saying that Japan must admit "its history of aggression in World War II" and that it was "unfit" for any new role at the UN until it made this admission.

MSNBC reports that the conflict between the two longtime rivals comes at an odd moment. Historically, conflicts between the two powers have come when one nation was powerful and the other was weak. But at this time, both nations are powerful, and both want to be the regional economic and political power in Asia.

Japan recently irked China when it announced, in partnership with the United States, that Taiwan represented a 'mutual security concern.' Tensions have also been raised over the disputed Senkaku [Japanese name] or Diaoyu islands [Chinesename]. And Japan’s latest defense blueprint pinpoints China as a potential military threat.

Meanwhile China has sent ships into the area Japan considers to be its "exclusive economic zone.' China has done so to prospect for oil and gas deposits, although some Japanese now claim that China is also mapping the ocean floor for future submarine use.

Jonathon Watts, in an analysis piece for The Guardian, writes that China and Japan, in the past year, have "plumbed alarming new depths of mutual misunderstanding that bodes ill for the future of east Asia's two most important nations."
Who or what is to blame for this chill? There are no easy answers. The deterioration of relations is largely the result of one of the world's most disastrous diplomatic fudges. Compared to Germany, Japan has been far more reluctant to accept blame for the second world war.

As a result, attempts to restore diplomatic relations with its neighbors was based on top-level compromise rather than grassroots penitence. Instead of paying compensation - which would imply guilt - the government offered trillions of yen of economic aid. So much, in fact, that Japan was the world's biggest overseas development aid donor for most of the 1990s, with the bulk of its largesse going to China.

Reuters reports, however, that many other nations in Asia say it time for China and Japan to "move on" past their differences over World War II. Nations such as Australia are calling on the two countries to "overcome their rivalry for the sake of the region."

'While Japan has done nothing especially outrageous, we should hope Tokyo takes the hint to talk and that China returns to diplomacy,' The Australian newspaper wrote in an editorial.

'Japan is our largest export destination. China is our No. 2 merchandised export market and is set to spend billions of dollars on our energy exports over the next 20 years. We must be friends with both, which is much easier when they are on good terms with each other.'

Perhaps in acknowledgement of this fact, and in advance of the planned visit of the Japanese Foreign Minister on Sunday (Tokyo has already asked Beijing to "guarantee" his safety) The Guardian reports that Thursday China made some moves to try and calm the situation with Japan, calling on "the Chinese public to avoid extremism after violent anti-Japanese protests."

Anticipating another weekend of rowdy anti-Japanese protests, police in Shanghai sent text messages Thursday to residents' cell phones, saying demonstrations must receive official permission and be orderly.

'According to law, marches must obtain permission. The masses, in expressing their warm patriotic sentiments, must be orderly, rational and law abiding,' the brief message said.




http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0414/dailyUpdate.html