From the Christian Science Monitor:
The visit to Tokyo this week by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao marks the latest step in what appears to be a remarkable turnaround in the China-Japan relationship.
Under former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who sparked outrage in China with his visits to Yasukuni Shrine – a potent symbol of Japan’s militaristic past – relations became so icy that the two leaders failed to hold a formal summit for five years.
China, for its part, stoked regional concerns of a resurgent Japanese nationalism. The issue came to a head in the spring of 2005, when demonstrations in China over Japan’s alleged whitewashing of its wartime past in school texts turned violent and demonstrators attacked Japanese consulates, supermarkets, and restaurants.[Full Text]
