Since I broke down and bought a Taiwanise Moped, (It is a hopped up "Mosquito," I am now the terror of Pali Highway), I thought I would start following the China news. I found this columnist in the South China Morning Post.
Monday, May 13, 2002
FOCUS ON CHINA
Damage control cannot quell Sino-Japanese distrust
FRANK CHING
It is the stuff of drama. Chinese policemen grabbed two North Korean women and a toddler who were trying to seek asylum in the Japanese Consulate in Shenyang in northeastern China on Wednesday, but not before the two men with them had succeeded in entering the diplomatic compound.
To the surprise of the North Koreans and Japanese diplomats, the Chinese policemen, without permission, entered the consular premises and dragged away the two men.
The Chinese action is, on the face of it, a clear violation of international law, with the potential to precipitate a fresh crisis in Sino-Japanese relations - already strained by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's recent visit to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine.
Japan protested, citing the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which stipulates: "The premises of the [diplomatic] mission shall be inviolable. The agents of the receiving state may not enter them, except with the consent of the head of the mission."
China, however, cites the same convention, which provides that "the receiving state" has "a special duty . . . to protect the premises of the mission against any intrusion". The North Koreans can arguably be considered intruders.
China can say its police were performing their duty in attempting to prevent the North Koreans entering the Japanese Consulate. However, after the two North Koreans entered, the Chinese police became intruders themselves when they followed them in.
The Shenyang incident aggravates a relationship already under considerable strain. The previous week, President Jiang Zemin had told visiting New Komeito Party leader Takenori Kanzaki that Mr Koizumi's April 21 visit to the Yasukuni Shrine, where 14 Class A war criminals are commemorated along with Japan's other war dead, was "totally unacceptable".
The shrine visit came as a surprise to China, which thought that Mr Koizumi, who had apologised last year for Japan's wartime aggression against China after making a similar visit to the shrine, would not repeat such visits. Last year, Li Peng, Chairman of the National People's Congress, postponed an official visit to Japan because of disputes over Japanese textbooks. After the April shrine visit, Beijing postponed scheduled defence talks.
Both countries are eager not to cause a rupture in their relationship, especially since they are celebrating the 30th anniversary of their establishment of diplomatic relations.
Indeed, the Shenyang events unfolded while a 5,000-member Chinese tourism delegation was in Japan to mark the event. A tourism delegation of 10,000 Japanese is scheduled to go to China in the autumn.
Both sides clearly want to maintain good relations and limit the damage. Thus, China allowed a visit to Japan by Zeng Qinghong, a senior official, to go ahead despite the Yasukuni visit. Japan is clearly eager not to allow the dispute over the North Koreans to get out of hand, with Mr Koizumi personally asking the Chinese Ambassador to make efforts to resolve the issue. But it does appear that crises often erupt to destabilise the relationship, which is important to both countries.
The frequency of new crises reflects the delicacy of the relationship. Aside from conflicts over history, reflected by disputes over textbooks and the Yasukuni visits, there are other issues confronting the Asian neighbours.
For one thing, many Japanese are apprehensive of China's emergence as a major power. The surging Chinese economy, which has caused Japanese companies to shift production facilities to the mainland to take advantage of cheaper land and labour, has precipitated fears of a hollowing out of Japanese industry. China, for its part, is worried about Japan's new military assertiveness.
Japan is conducting research with the United States on the feasibility of a missile defence system for East Asia, and Beijing fears such a system may be used to shield Taiwan from mainland missiles.
Japan is considering legislation on how to respond to attacks or perceived threats of attack, and a Japanese politician warned recently that the country could produce nuclear weapons in the event of Chinese expansionism.
What is perhaps more difficult to manage than the utterances of politicians is a feeling of distrust among ordinary people.
Many Chinese have neither forgiven nor forgotten Japan's former aggression, and a rise in nationalism has been accompanied by occasionally overt anti-Japanese sentiment. In Japan, too, there has been a rise in antipathy to China, spurred by a rise in crimes perpetrated by Chinese living in Japan.
The intrusion into the Japanese Consulate is merely the latest crisis, which no doubt will sooner or later be resolved or papered over. But a much harder task facing the two governments is how to cope with their own people and the risks posed by their rising antipathy.
columns.scmp.com |
