It goes without saying that mainland Chinese prime minister Wen Jiabao's visit to Japan this week is historic, taking place at a time when Sino-Japanese relations have been frosty for too long. The soft-spoken Chinese leader rightly calls his journey to Japan an "ice melting" visit. While it remains to be seen whether the trip will thaw the ice, it is at least a step in the right direction.
Wen Jiabao was the first Chinese leader to address the Japanese parliament in 22 years, indicating the importance attached to the visit by his host -- Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The mainland showed equal eagerness to mend ties with Japan, which has been a major investor in China and trade partner since the country's reforms that opened it up to the west in 1978.
Only two years ago, large-scale anti-Japan demonstrations broke out in mainland China, triggered by Japan's revision of history books that covered up its war time atrocities committed against China and other countries in Asia. The history text book issue is but one of the so-called "history issues" standing in the way of better Sino-Japanese relations.
In his address to the Japanese parliament Wednesday, Wen devoted considerable time expounding Beijing's position and reminded his host to pay attention to the issue, although he avoided using blunt language. "The traditional and friendly Sino-Japanese relations were damaged by an aggressive war against China, causing immeasurable suffering and losses to the Chinese people," Wen told Japanese legislators, adding, "The Japanese people were also victims of the war."
Wen urged Japan, softly, to "learn from history", saying that doing so was an "expression of self confidence." He spoke at length of some moving stories about post-war Japanese orphans raised in China by Chinese families, and about the repatriation of more than one million Japanese civilians after the surrender of Japan in 1945. "History is a mirror, telling us that both of us will benefit if we cooperate; and both will lose if we fight," he said.
Wen's speech was titled "For the sake of friendship and cooperation." That friendship was disrupted 70 years ago by Japan's war of aggression launched by Japanese militarists in 1937. The bond of friendship was restored 35 years ago when mainland China and Japan established diplomatic relations in 1972. But the ties have seen ups and downs due to many disputes, not the least of which was the "history issue" that also includes the controversial visits by Japanese leaders to a war shrine that honors war criminals as well as war dead.
Prime Minister Abe's predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, had paid an annual visit to the shrine, Yasukuni, in his official capacity as prime minister, ignoring strong protests from Beijing and Seoul, which regard such visits as hurting the feelings of their people. Wen Jiabao, prior to his visit to Japan, pointedly urged Japan to pay attention to the Yasukuni issue. But Abe has been ambiguous on this sensitive issue.
Wen's three-day visit to Japan should be regarded as a calculated success judging from his reception in Japan and his appeal to improving relations through friendship and cooperation. The visit could not have come at a better time, when both Tokyo and Beijing feel the need to thaw their relations. A protracted freeze of political relations is apparently not in the interests of either side, as their economies have become interdependent. Mainland China has overtaken the United States to become Japan's largest trading partner in 2006, with bilateral trade totaling US$200 billion. Japan's investment in China since 1978 has exceeded US$56 billion.
Indeed, much is at stake in strengthening the ties. In their meeting on Wednesday, the two prime ministers decided to build up "strategic mutual benefits" that could be derived from cooperation in a wide range of fields-environment, technology, energy, finance, just to mention a few.
In recent years, people in both countries became worried about the phenomenon of what they called "chilly politics, hot economics." The danger is that the hot economic ties may lose temperature if politics remain cold for too long.
Now, with the joint statement issued after the Wen-Abe summit, the political temperature between Beijing and Tokyo is sure to rise, slowly at least.
To be sure, there was no breakthrough on key issues such as the Yasukuni visit, but a lot of goodwill was shown by both sides as their leaders pledged to rebuild ties. Wen Jiabao, for instance, suggested that both sides put aside their dispute over oil drilling in the East China Sea, and instead focus on cooperation in tapping oil in the contested area.
A small step was taken to repair the damaged ties. Abe deserves credit for making the initial move last October right after he became prime minister by making his first visit to the mainland, a trip he billed as "ice breaking." Now, six months later, Wen Jiabao reciprocated with his "iced melting" visit.
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