Japan, China tensions cool after Koizumi apology

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=2843e53810679cbc

'In the past, Japan, through its colonial rule and aggression, caused tremendous damage and suffering for the people of many countries, particularly those of Asian nations,' Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said on Friday, in a speech delivered at the opening ceremony of the Asia-Africa Summit in Jakarta attended by both Koizumi and Chinese President Hu Jintao

snip...
For a variety of reasons, Japan's economic relationship with China may be more important to Japan than China's economic relationship with Japan is to China, limiting the Japanese government's freedom of action. Ultimately, Japan may be forced to choose between its massive investments in mainland China - which have become increasingly indispensable to Japan Inc - and its historic unwillingness to confront right-wing nationalist forces. At the same time, China's outdated Leninist dictatorship, which is under constant pressure to demonize foreign or domestic 'enemies' as a way of distracting attention from spiraling corruption and its own massive crimes against the Chinese people (which are not only far greater in magnitude, but much more recent, than imperial Japan's war crimes in China), may have to pass into history for the Chinese civilization to consistently remain at peace with its neighbors.

more....

"China's outdated Leninist dictatorship, which is under constant pressure to demonize foreign or domestic 'enemies' as a way of distracting attention from spiraling corruption and its own massive crimes against the Chinese people"

that technique isn't outdated Bush uses that technique very well against the Very Very Bad Man Saddam to go to IRAQ~~~

"For a variety of reasons, Japan's economic relationship with China may be more important to Japan than China's economic relationship with Japan is to China, limiting the Japanese government's freedom of action. Ultimately, Japan may be forced to choose between its massive investments in mainland China - which have become increasingly indispensable to Japan Inc - and its historic unwillingness to confront right-wing nationalist forces."

I've been preaching this in many posts, that China has now the upper hand, nice to see that someone else also gets it (main and most obvious reason is that China is Japan's trade partner number one, but Japan is China's number three (after EU and US).

But Japanese "right-wing nationalist forces" are issue only for the LibDems, and Socialists nearly one last time. And I think Chinese goals are further than that, the real target is of course not Japan (which is a US proxy), but US itself. Chinese goal is regime change in Japan and cutting alliance and servitude to US, after which Taiwan will fall into Chinese lap like a ripe fruit.

The apology did not include anything that Mr. Koizumi's predecessors or he himself had not said before. But it came on the heels of violent anti-Japanese demonstrations in China and was made by a prime minister who has antagonized China by praying annually at Yasukuni Shrine, seen by many Asians as a symbol of unrepentant militarism, and by many Japanese simply as a place to revere the dead. The apology was also made in a public forum before world leaders, in contrast to more recent apologies, which have been issued in Japan.
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Asians here, who have long accused the Japanese of lip service on the matter, greeted the apology skeptically. Those doubts deepened later Friday when a member of Mr. Koizumi's cabinet and 80 other lawmakers prayed in a spring ritual at Yasukuni Shrine, where Class A war criminals are among those enshrined.
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Despite repeated apologies over the years, actions including the Yasukuni visits and the growing tendency of Japanese textbooks to play down Japan's invasion and occupation of mainland Asia have bred skepticism about Japan's sincerity.

"Remorse over the past must be genuine and must be put into action," Lee Hae Chan, the South Korean prime minister, said in a speech at the meeting here, hours after Mr. Koizumi spoke. "A country that distorts history by glossing over the colonial past and hiding their misdeeds, thus concealing them from the younger generations, will not be able to free itself from the shackles of the past."

Even as Japan is trying to raise its international stature as part of an effort to gain a permanent seat on an enlarged United Nations Security Council, its dispute with China, partly over history, has drawn an unwanted spotlight on its problematic past. Protests against Japan have been held in South Korea and Vietnam, and officials in places like Malaysia and Indonesia have made critical comments.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/23/international/asia/23japan.html

We in the West allways think in terms of Aristotelian 'Law of the Excluded Middle', but in the East they don't. They accept the 'both and' also as logically valid.

So, sure this is BOTH politically cynical campaign from China AND genuine bitterness against Japan from all the historical victims.

I will refer people interested in this matter to the discussion on this topic at Japan Today:

http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=9&id=335039&display=all

The issue of apologies always is a hot topic over there so there is plenty of back-and-forth to read.