China's anti-Japanese campaign has been growing. The major reason behind it is to stop Japan from becoming a permanent member of the UN Security Council. Other issues such as textbook changes and "comfort women" are mere excuses.
China's loudest campaign slogan is: A Japan that does not review its invasion of China and that has no credibility in Asia is absolutely not qualified to represent Asia on the council. In fact, Beijing has already shown its support for Germany, which is also currently striving for a permanent seat.
Japan-US alliance
This is because the US and Japan are the largest obstacles to China's "unification."
In early February, the US-Japan Security Consultative Committee even publicly stated for the very first time that it would "encourage the peaceful resolution of issues concerning the Taiwan Strait through dialogue."
In light of the positive relations between Taiwan and Japan at the moment, China believes that Japan may "collude" with the US if it becomes a permanent member of the security council, making the issue of Taiwan tougher.
This is why Beijing has launched a large-scale anti-Japanese movement. In other words, it has linked historical problems to Japan's bid for a permanent seat.
Further, issues such as the sovereignty dispute over the Diaoyutai Islands, and the conflicts over oil and gas development in the East China Sea, add to China's desire that Japan not become a leading political power.
All of these factors are closely related to the two countries' national security and energy strategy.
Political pressure
Obviously, if Japan becomes a permanent member and stands side-by-side with the US in international politics, the political pressure on China will become greater.
As a result, it may be difficult to restrain China's anti-Japanese sentiment.
Last Sunday, Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura arrived in Beijing for an exchange of opinions with Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing (李肇星).
Today, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will attend an Asia-Africa summit in Indonesia, and he is expected to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤).
They will certainly talk about the current anti-Japanese protests.
The anti-Japanese movement will inevitably affect the two countries' trade and economies. In recent years, Japan has sold an enormous amount of steel to China.
compatible economies
Some Japanese people have even said that China saved Japan's steel industry.
Nevertheless, China has also made a fortune from Japan. While it makes use of Japan's capital and technology, Japan also leverages China's relatively cheap laborer and materials. So the two countries are economically complementary to each other.
Still, it may be hard to remedy historical hatred and ethnic emotions in a short period of time. Sino-Japanese relations may improve after the meeting between Hu and Koizumi, but China's anti-Japanese sentiment is like a ticking bomb that may explode at anytime.
The situation depends completely on Japan's introspection and efforts, as well as China's self-restraint.
Chen Peng-jen is the director of the Graduate Institute of Japanese Studies at Chinese Culture University.
TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG
The White House’s decision to take a 9.9 percent stake in Intel Corp is looking like very shrewd business indeed. Since the government bought in at US$20.47 a share last August, the US chipmaker’s surging stock price has delivered the US a US$43 billion return. One of the reasons the investment has so far proved so sound is that the White House has made sure of it. According to The Wall Street Journal, Howard personally pushed deals on Intel’s behalf with some of the most lucrative clients imaginable. They include Nvidia Corp, the company at the heart of the AI
A single photograph can cut through a lot of noise, but it can also be used to misrepresent the truth. At the very least, it can concentrate the mind on something that requires further investigation. On Monday last week, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation CEO Tai Hsia-ling (戴遐齡) and former National Security Council secretary-general King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) held a news conference in which they showed a photograph of former foundation CEO Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑), now Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) deputy chairman. In the image Hsiao is seated next to Xiamen Taiwan Businessmen Association chairman Han Ying-huan (韓螢煥). The two men were holding
I first met Professor Ray Jiing (井迎瑞) as a film and documentary student at Shih Hsin University’s (SHU) Department of Radio Television and Film in 1988. The following year, he went on to become the director of the Chinese Taipei Film Archive — forerunner of the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute (TFAI). Over his eight-year tenure, Jiing rescued and restored over 200 classic Taiwanese films. In 1997, he established the Graduate Institute of Studies in Documentary and Film Archiving at Tainan National University of the Arts (TNNUA), and I joined the program in his third cohort of students. Beyond a
President William Lai Ching-te’s (賴清德) May 20 second-anniversary address was not just a routine policy review; it was damage control. US President Donald Trump’s remarks — that he did not want to see anyone move toward independence and that the delivery of a major Taiwan arms package could depend on the progress of US-China relations — unsettled Taiwan’s public and created an opening for opposition parties to question whether Taiwan was being treated as a bargaining chip in Washington’s dealings with Beijing. Lai’s speech was designed to close that opening. The address covered the expected ground: sovereignty, cross-strait relations, defense spending,
RSS