Japan said yesterday it has begun processing applications to let Japanese companies drill for natural gas in a disputed area of the East China Sea, a decision likely to further inflame Tokyo's worst diplomatic row with China in decades.
The flare-up -- which began last week as part of a long-standing feud over Japan's wartime atrocities -- risks jeopardizing Tokyo's bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council and blocking the countries' flourishing trade and investment ties.
Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said it will approve corporate bids "as quickly as possible" for deep-sea gas exploration in waters just east of what Tokyo says is its sea border with China. Beijing disputes that border.
A ministry official said approval was expected within two to three months.
China's Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment. The two countries' foreign ministers were scheduled to hold two-day talks in Beijing starting Sunday.
Tensions have escalated since last week, when Tokyo approved new Japanese history textbooks that critics say play down Japan's wartime atrocities.
That triggered anti-Japan protests on Saturday in China's capital, where an angry mob hurled rocks and bottles at the Japanese Embassy, smashing windows.
The rift reflects a fierce rivalry between Japan and China over regional dominance and potentially rich energy sources needed to power their massive economies.
Experts said relations between the two nations had sunk to their worst in three decades.
"They haven't had a falling out like this since establishing diplomatic ties in 1972," Tokuji Kasahara, a professor at Tsuru University, west of Tokyo, and an expert on Japan-China relations.
Tokyo repeatedly has accused China of exploring the oil fields in Japan's exclusive economic zone, demanding that Beijing halt the activities or share the results. Last week, Trade Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said Tokyo would go ahead with plans to let Japanese companies begin test-drilling in early April.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi denied that Tokyo's decision was prompted by China's handling of the protests or Beijing's refusal to apologize.
"It's only a procedure. We will handle it in an orderly manner," Koizumi said.
History has affected Japan's relations with its neighbors for decades.
China, South Korea and other Asian nations have long accused Japan of failing to express adequate contrition for its conquests of the 1930s and 1940s, during which China says as many as 30 million of its people died. The suspicions have only deepened with Koizumi's annual visits to a Tokyo shrine honoring Japan's war dead -- including convicted World War II criminals -- and Tokyo's push for a higher profile on the global stage with a dispatch of peacekeeping troops to Afghanistan and Iraq.
The economic and political repercussions of Tokyo's dispute with Beijing are huge.
China is Japan's second-biggest trading partner, behind the US, with two-way shipments totaling US$170 billion last year. Political discord could hurt Japanese companies' chances of winning infrastructure projects in China, possibly disrupt shipments from those companies' China-based plants and spark boycotts of Japanese goods by Chinese consumers.
Rainfall is expected to become more widespread and persistent across central and southern Taiwan over the next few days, with the effects of the weather patterns becoming most prominent between last night and tomorrow, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Independent meteorologist Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said that based on the latest forecast models of the combination of a low-pressure system and southwesterly winds, rainfall and flooding are expected to continue in central and southern Taiwan from today to Sunday. The CWA also warned of flash floods, thunder and lightning, and strong gusts in these areas, as well as landslides and fallen
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
SOUTH CHINA SEA? The Philippine president spoke of adding more classrooms and power plants, while skipping tensions with China over disputed areas Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday blasted “useless and crumbling” flood control projects in a state of the nation address that focused on domestic issues after a months-long feud with his vice president. Addressing a joint session of congress after days of rain that left at least 31 dead, Marcos repeated his recent warning that the nation faced a climate change-driven “new normal,” while pledging to investigate publicly funded projects that had failed. “Let’s not pretend, the people know that these projects can breed corruption. Kickbacks ... for the boys,” he said, citing houses that were “swept away” by the floods. “Someone has
‘CRUDE’: The potential countermeasure is in response to South Africa renaming Taiwan’s representative offices and the insistence that it move out of Pretoria Taiwan is considering banning exports of semiconductors to South Africa after the latter unilaterally downgraded and changed the names of Taiwan’s two representative offices, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. On Monday last week, the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation unilaterally released a statement saying that, as of April 1, the Taipei Liaison Offices in Pretoria and Cape Town had been renamed the “Taipei Commercial Office in Johannesburg” and the “Taipei Commercial Office in Cape Town.” Citing UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, it said that South Africa “recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole
RSS