Will they or won't they? That's one of the questions hanging over this weekend's APEC summit in respect of a possible meeting between the Chinese and Japanese leaders here in Yokohama.
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said that the ball is in China's court over whether there's going to be a bilateral meeting with Hu Jintao, but speaking ahead of the G-20 summit taking place today and tomorrow in Seoul, Reuters reported that he added: 'Through these two meetings, I think it is desirable for China to make it clear that it is a country that carries out its responsibilities within international rules.'
The prospects for a meeting taking place certainly didn't look great earlier this week, with both the Chinese and Russian finance ministers deciding to skip the APEC finance ministers meeting in Kyoto (Russia has decided to pile the pressure on Kan through President Dmitry Medvedev's decision to visit the disputed Kunashiri island).
The Chinese move was something of a blow to Japan, which had hoped to use the meeting to reaffirm its economic engagement with China. The two countries hold the largest foreign exchange reserves, while bilateral trade between them was ¥12.6 trillion ($153 billion) in the first six months of this year.
As I've said before, it's hard to see what such snubs achieve, and it does no good for Asia's two leading powers not to be talking (just as it did none when China cut off high-level military contacts with the United States earlier this year when it followed through with arms sales to Taiwan). Such actions only make China look, frankly, petulant.
All this said, China is apparently not content with unsettled ties with Japan, Vietnam and India and now appears to be trying to annoy Seoul by pressuring it not to send a representative to Norway next month to attend a ceremony honouring Nobel peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo.
According to the JoongAng Daily, a diplomatic source said: ‘After requesting Japan and European countries not to send a government delegate to the Nobel Peace Prize Award Ceremony for Liu Xiaobo to be held in Oslo on Dec. 10, China requested the same thing from Korea through diplomatic channels.’
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John Chan
The only way to cure your drag addicted kid is to shut down your parental love temporary and send him to rehab for tough treatment, meanwhile the parents’ hearts are bleeding, for the good of the kid, the parents must do it with courage, it’s called tough love. China is using the same tough love treating Japan. For the long term stable peace and prosperity of the two nations, Japan must learn where are the China’s limits. If parents do not treat their limits seriously, their kids won’t have guidance for them to look upon and rules for them to follow and behave properly, then the family will be in chaos. While carrying out disciplinary actions, there are pains on both parents and the kids to endure. The costs to establish such order and understanding must be paid, the size of the cost depends on how quickly the kids learn their lessons. The article said “it’s hard to see what such snubs achieve.”, which is totally missing the point and misjudging the situation. Only parents with spoiled kids will say such irresponsible thing.
leftwingback
so you’re saying china is the big daddy now?
and people wonder why there are china bashers out there
John Chan
@leftwingback, if Japan continues to advance its imperial military adventurism, and endanger China’s security, as well as the peace and property for the world that China has been working on so hard to achieve, maybe Japan should be treated like rascal. China bashers are the existing establishment wanted to knock down a rising kid.
Michael
Mr. Jason “Everything is China’s fault” Miks:
The ball is not in China’s court. Chinese foreign ministry has announced that no such a meeting is planned. Which part of that you do not understand?
A meeting between Hu and Kan would achieve nothing if Japan does not behave like responsible country. Japan, or most precisely, Japan’s current FM Maehara started this whole mess with China and Russia. He openly challenged Russia’s hold of Kuril islands, and ordered the arrest of Chinese fish boat captain. With an extremist like Maehara holds high office in Japan, there is little hope that a meeting will achieve anything.
Japan and western propaganda machines like “The Diplomat” successfully blamed China for this standoff. But facts are facts, repeating it 1000 times will not change it.
Michael
Japan has to come to the reality that it’s future prosperity is with Asia and that doing the bidding of Westerners to destabilize the entire region will not be tolerated and sever consequences will be the result. Japan needs to have its own foreign policy made for the interest of Japan by Japanese and not the Americans who benefit the most when the Japanese and Chinese don’t get along because its not in their interest for the two to be allies! The West is overstaying and is increasingly the trouble maker in Asia! In time the Asians will have to ask them to leave!