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China news tagged with: Japan relations (135)

• Aso Calls For Japan, China To Unite

  

  From AFP:

  Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso on Thursday called for Tokyo and Beijing to unite in facing the world’s environmental and economic challenges, while playing down concerns over China’s military power.

  In a wide-ranging speech in Beijing, Aso floated the prospect of a bilateral free trade deal and joint peace-keeping operations, and said closer ties between the historic rivals was the only way forward.

  “Cooperation between Japan and China is a pre-condition for taking advantage of Asia’s potential as the growth centre for the 21st Century,” Aso told a gathering of business leaders from both nations.

  Aso, who met Chinese President Hu Jintao later Thursday for the final major engagement of his two-day trip, talked about working together to overcome the “once-in-a-century global economic and financial crisis”.

  » Read more
  • April 30, 2009 10:56 AM

• New York Times: China Can’t Have It Both Ways

  

  The New York Times published an editorial criticizing China’s reactions to Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso’s recent offering at the Yasukuni Shrine and to a potential meeting between President Obama and the Dalai Lama:

  Mr. Aso’s offering to Yasukuni was blatantly provocative and offensive, even if all he offered was a potted sakaki evergreen, and his explanation — that he was just expressing “appreciation and respect” to Japanese who gave their all — was disingenuous.

  We understand China’s frustration. But it only makes Beijing’s repression of Tibet and its attacks on the Dalai Lama all the more hypocritical.

  » Read more
  • April 26, 2009 1:47 PM

• David Adam Stott: China, Japan and Indonesia’s LNG Ploys

  

  From Japan Focus:

  2008 was a rollercoaster year for those in the oil and gas industries. In July crude oil prices hit US$147 a barrel in the wake of attacks on Nigerian oil installations, before receding to under US$40 in December after months of economic decline in most major consuming countries. Weaker economies and record high prices have seemingly reduced worldwide demand and burst the speculative bubble in commodity prices. For those in government and business tasked with strategic planning such pricing movements make their jobs extremely challenging. Indeed, despite extensive research by the World Bank, analysts remain unsure if future oil prices will ever again climb above US$100 per barrel.

  » Read more
  • February 2, 2009 11:00 PM

• Japan Says China’s Gas Drilling ‘Regrettable’

  

  According to Japanese officials, China violated an agreement it had brokered with Japan in 2008 to jointly develop gas fields in the East China Sea. From Reuters:

  Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said China had been drilling in violation of a June 2008 agreement with Japan and that Tokyo had protested as soon as it became aware. He did not specify when this happened.

  [...]

  “Under last June’s agreement, we were meant to continue negotiations about the areas on which there was no political consensus. So this is most regrettable and we are protesting to the Chinese government,” Nakasone told reporters.

  [...]

  The Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement on its website at the weekend that developing the field was an “inherent sovereign right of China”.

  » Read more
  • January 5, 2009 7:48 PM

• China Condemns Sacked Japan General’s War Comments

  

  From Reuters:

  China was strongly critical on Saturday of an essay by a Japanese air force chief of staff who said Japan was not an aggressor in Asia in World War Two and was later dismissed for airing those views.

  “We are shocked by and express our strong indignation over the senior Japanese military officer’s denial of Japan’s aggression and overtly glorifying its history of invasion,” the Xinhua news agency quoted Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu as saying.

  General Toshio Tamogami, in an essay posted on the website of a Japanese hotel and apartment developer, said Japan was ensnared into World War Two by the United States and that Japan’s military actions in China were based on treaties.

  » Read more
  • November 2, 2008 3:14 AM

• Japan’s Leader Wants More Phone Time With China

  

  From AP:

  China and Japan pledged to continue their recently warming ties, with Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso saying Saturday the countries’ leaders should talk more on the phone.

  Making his first visit to Beijing since becoming prime minister last month, Aso said he and President Hu Jintao agreed to cooperate in dealing with the challenge posed by the global financial crisis.

  They also discussed North Korea’s nuclear program and the war on terrorism and called for moving ahead with “mutually beneficial strategic ties,” Aso said.

  “We should build trust to the extent that we can pick up the phone whenever necessary,” Aso told reporters after the close of a two-day meeting of Asian and European leaders in Beijing.

  » Read more
  • October 25, 2008 9:51 PM

• The Japanese Train Controversy

  

  Cam MacMurchy of the Zhongnanhai blog reports on the online furor caused by a train conductor’s decision to make a special, unscheduled stop by the Dalian airport for his Japanese passengers.

  On August 22nd a train in the Dalian traffic section made an unscheduled stop close to the Dalian airport for some Japanese passengers. Thanks to the one-minute stop, the passengers were able to catch their flight on time. One of the Japanese passengers was so thankful for the gesture that he wrote a letter in Chinese to thank the captain: “The train stopped temporarily for us for one minute. This would not have been done in another country in the whole world,” he wrote.

  News of the train stoppage has provoked controversy among Chinese netizens. Over ten thousand people posted their opinions online. Should the train have stopped? Would the train stop for Chinese passengers in an emergency? 90% of people online don’t believe the train would’ve made the unscheduled stop for Chinese passengers.

  [...]Some netizens questioned the credibility of the letter written by the Japanese passenger. According to the report, the writer, who represented the Japanese passengers, wrote, in Chinese, “This would not have been done in another country in the whole world. The train stopped just for us at the Zhoushuizi station and the captain organized for us to get off in advance, which gave us enough time to catch our flight. This has never happened in daily life in China before. The captain even organized the police car to escort us to the airport. I don’t think this has ever happened before, either.”

  Some netizens thought the letter was sarcastic.

  The train conductor soon caught word of netizens’ anger, via his son who had been surfing online. In response, the conductor wrote the following statement, translated by Zhongnanhai:

  First, why was there a delay? Due to the rapid growth of the Chinese economy and our large population, the demand for railway services is far higher than the actual volume. The report (the author references an original newspaper article praising him for stopping the train) said that China’s railway volume is 7% of the world’s railway volume, but in fact it stands at 40%. This is a huge accomplishment, but a big problem, too. This can not be solved in the near future due to the massive amount of investment needed for the development of the China Railway industry. We have nothing to do with the delays of Chinese trains. The acceleration of the Chinese railway system is at the expense of fewer stops. Lots of trains don’t stop at small stations. I hope everyone can understand these delays.

  Second, why would we stop for those Japanese passengers? The seven Japanese passengers were late for their flight, which was due to the delay of our train. If they couldn’t catch the flight, it would cause them a late departure and maybe other troubles as well. It was due to our problem. There were two elders in their group and they looked really worried. Credit (?) records are very important in the developed world, so if there was a late departure on their passports it would cause other problems for them. From another point of view, Japan is a developed country. Our country needs their investment and has to import lots of advanced technology from them. I did it for the benefit of our country. It was a good opportunity to build a good image of China. There are no trivial things in diplomacy. If I didn’t handle this well, it would result in damage to our country’s reputation and foreign investment.

  Zhongnanhai also translates some of the user comments to his response:

  If it was Chinese, would you stop for them? I look down upon some people who caters to foreigners, soft bone! Double faced! It is not shameful to be in a low social position, it is shameful to have a low spirit.

  I don’t think netizens are angry only at you. It is the common SUPER NATIONAL TREATMENT incidents. If “it won’t happen in any other countries in the world”, why we would sacrifice to please “foreign friends?”

  » Read more
  • October 24, 2008 11:31 PM

• Aso To Visit China Late Oct, Eyes Talks With Hu, Wen

  

  From Reuters:

  Japan’s new Prime Minister Taro Aso plans to visit China in late October, eyeing his first summit with Chinese leaders since taking office last month, government officials said on Sunday.

  Tokyo and Beijing are in talks to set up a meeting between Aso and Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, when Aso attends the summit of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Beijing on October 24 and 25, two officials said.

  Aso has shot down speculation that he would call a snap election later this month, saying that he would first work to stimulate the economy.

  “That allows Aso to attend the ASEM meeting, and the government is in the final stage of scheduling” the meetings with Hu and Wen, said a foreign ministry official who asked not to be named as he was not authorized to speak to the media.

  » Read more
  • October 6, 2008 5:44 PM

• China Avoids Direct Comment On New Japan Leader Aso

  

  From Reuters:

  China avoided commenting directly on the election of hawkish Taro Aso as Japan’s new leader, with a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman saying on Tuesday only that good ties were in the interests of both countries.

  An outspoken nationalist, Aso won the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leadership vote on Monday, succeeding Yasuo Fukuda, who had focused on improving long-strained ties with Beijing.

  Aso, a former foreign minister, has been wary of China and wants Japan to wield more regional clout.

  » Read more
  • September 23, 2008 4:31 AM

• Beijing Denies Intruding Sub Was Chinese, Lodges Complaint

  

  Beijing has denied that the unidentified submarine that entered Japanese waters recently was Chinese. It has also lodged a formal complaint with Japan over the incident and the subsequent implications by Japanese media that the sub was Chinese. From The Japan Times:

  The Chinese Foreign Ministry contacted the Japanese Embassy on Monday evening denying the possibility that the submarine was Chinese and describing the reports as false and regrettable, Foreign Ministry Deputy Press Secretary Yasuhisa Kawamura said.

  The Maritime Self-Defense Force stopped looking for the submarine Tuesday afternoon.

  …

  Defense Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said at a separate news conference there was no information that would help pin down the nationality of the vessel.

  » Read more
  • September 16, 2008 9:44 PM

• Japan Hunts Mystery Submarine Intruder

  

  An unidentified submarine entered deep into Japanese territory yesterday. Japan’s navy tracked the vessel for two hours, then lost it. From The Sydney Morning Herald:

  The Naval vessel Atago spotted the submarine in Japanese waters at 6.56am (0756 AEST) but the craft did not raise a national flag or surface, breaching international laws, a defence ministry spokesman said.

  Atago, an Aegis-equipped warship, chased the submarine off the coast of Kochi prefecture in western Japan, facing the Pacific Ocean, until about 8.40am (0940 AEST) , he said.

  “We have not identified the nationality of the submarine and we are still searching for it,” the spokesman said.

  Using sonar, Atago confirmed that the submarine does not belong to the Japanese navy nor its ally the US Navy, he said.

  “We will make a protest against the country through a diplomatic route” once Japan identifies the nationality of the submarine, Defence Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said, according to Jiji Press.

  Here is a map of where the incident occurred from MSN Encarta

  More on the story from Japan Today here.

  Both reports note that the last time a similar incident occurred was in November 2004, when a Chinese nuclear submarine entered Japanese waters. Beijing apologized for the intrusion a week later. Read “The Potential Deterioration of Sino-Japanese Relations,” (Dec. 2004) from Power and Interest News Report, which mentions the potential for similar Chinese sub incursions into Japanese waters in the future:

  Tensions in the East China Sea were raised again on November 10 when Japanese microphone-carrying buoys detected a Chinese submarine in Japan’s territorial waters. Tokyo scrambled military planes and warships to track the submarine, but the Chinese submarine had left Japan’s territory before it could be intercepted. Japan claimed that China apologized for what it said was a technical problem that caused the submarine to veer off course, but the incident showed the progress that Japan has made in rebuilding its military defense capabilities since the end of World War II. Similar conflicts may arise in the future as China expands its submarine force, which at 50 to 80 nuclear and non-nuclear submarines will rival the U.S.’ all nuclear fleet by the end of the decade and far outweighs Japan’s 18 non-nuclear submarines.

  » Read more
  • September 14, 2008 11:37 AM

• Survey: Sino-Japanese Relationship Improving

  

  From China Daily:

  A joint survey indicates both Chinese and Japanese people think the Sino-Japan relationship has improved significantly in the past year due to fruitful meetings of the two countries’ top leaders.

  The China-Japan Joint Opinion Poll sponsored by China Daily and Genron NPO of Japan was issued in Tokyo on Monday as the fourth poll following previous surveys.

  In the survey, 1,557 urban residents, 1,037 college students in China and 1,000 residents, 400 academics in Japan were surveyed simultaneously from late June to mid-July this year. Regarding the importance of the Sino-Japanese relationship, an overwhelming 92.6 percent of students and 86.6 percent of residents from China, and 97.5 percent Japanese intellects and 80.3 percent Japanese residents consider the Sino-Japan relationship “important” and “relatively important”.

  When asked what they thought of the current Sino-Japanese relationship, 42.5 percent of Chinese students and 56 percent of Chinese residents said it was “good” or “relatively good”, up 34.3 percent and 31 percent respectively from last year, while in Japan they were up 6.5 percent and 28.8 percent respectively.

  » Read more
  • September 8, 2008 6:03 PM

• On Visit to Japan, China’s Hu Has No Time for Old Grudges

  

  Blaine Harden reports for the Washington Post from Tokyo:

  The two economic giants of Asia courted each other this week during a five-day visit to Japan by Chinese President Hu Jintao that played down wartime grudges and played up pragmatic cooperation.

  The visit did not resolve a long-running dispute between the countries over rights to explore for natural gas in the East China Sea. Hu and Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said they are working on it.

  But the words and images that came out of the visit signaled a broad improvement in relations between the world’s second- and third-ranking economic powers, especially as compared with the last time a Chinese president came here.

  Also from the New York Times:

  President Hu Jintao’s visit to Japan this week was the first by a Chinese leader in a decade. It was a lot friendlier than the previous one — when President Jiang Zemin publicly chastised his hosts for not showing sufficient contrition over Japan’s brutal occupation of China in 1930s and 1940s. Unlike some of his recent predecessors, Japan’s prime minister, Yasuo Fukuda, has made an effort not to infuriate the Chinese. Notably, he has refused to pander to Japanese nationalists by visiting Tokyo’s tainted Yasukuni war shrine.

  » Read more
  • May 10, 2008 10:03 AM

• Relations between Old Foes Remain Fragile

  

  From the Financial Times:

  When 10 people in Japan became ill after eating pesticide-tainted gyoza dumplings made in China, the resulting furore among the Japanese public demonstrated how fragile relations were between the two countries.

  Even an attempt by both countries’ authorities to calm the situation through a joint investigation, which subsequently reached a stalemate, could not prevent the gyoza story from taking on a life of its own. Under public pressure, Japanese supermarkets, restaurants and school cafeterias withdrew Chinese produce. Imports of food from China, which account for 17 per cent of Japan’s external food purchases, fell by 20-30 per cent in the ensuing months.

  » Read more
  • May 6, 2008 9:27 AM

• China’s Hu Urges Cooperation ahead of Japan Summit

  

  Hu Jintao has made a historic trip to Japan — the first such trip in a decade — for a five-day state visit. From Reuters:

  Chinese President Hu Jintao lauded closer cooperation with Japan when he arrived on Tuesday for a state visit intended to nurture trust between the Asian powers despite rifts over energy resources and security.

  Hu was greeted in Tokyo by senior Japanese officials and flag-waving, mostly Chinese well-wishers. Downtown, some 7,000 police were deployed ahead of threatened protests by hundreds of right-wing activists who see China as a danger.

  But China is promoting itself as a friendly neighbor after years of feuding over Japan’s handling of its wartime aggression, and Hu has stressed forward-looking goals for his five days of ceremony, speeches and deals, as well as table tennis and perhaps pandas.

  Read also Hu: China-Japan relations facing new opportunities for further development by Xinhua, China’s Hu in Japan on rare visit of reconciliation by AFP, and Hu’s trip to Japan calls for pingpong, pandas from AP.

  » Read more
  • May 6, 2008 2:14 AM

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