As history enters the year of 2003, the relationship between
China and Japan has experienced frequent ups and downs at
non-governmental levels. According to an article published in a
recent issue of China News Week, it seems that Sino-Japanese
relations are again stepping into an uncertain and delicate phase
at the people-to-people level.
On August 4, 2003, a mustard gas accident happened in Qiqihar in
northeast China's Heilongjiang
Province, causing one death and dozens of injuries of innocent
Chinese citizens. It was a crime committed by chemical weapons left
over from the invading Japanese army during World War II.
On September 18 of the same year, a group of Japanese tourists
hired hundreds of prostitutes for an orgy in a hotel in the coastal
city of Zhuhai, Guangdong
Province, on the sensitive eve of the 72nd anniversary of the
Japanese occupation of China's northeast in 1931. Again, this
deeply hurt the feelings of the Chinese people.
In the meantime, millions of angry Chinese netizens opposed
importing Japanese bullet trains via the Internet due to their
anger against Japan.
In October, the publicly distasteful performances of some
Japanese teachers and students angered thousands of students in
Northwest University in Xi'an, who marched to the provincial
government office building to protest.
As mentioned in the article, these incidents had been the focus
of the Chinese media for quite a while and part of people's daily
conversation across the country. If they were not Japan-related,
could these issues have raised such a strong reaction, the China
News Week article asks.
Usually, the Chinese government plays a dominative role in
foreign affairs, yet, Sino-Japanese relations seem to be the
exception, in which the non-governmental force has played an
important part and had an impact on the government.
The reason why Sino-Japanese relations are so sensitive lies in
the war between the two countries when Japan was the invader.
Recent years have witnessed dramatic changes in both China and
Japan. The most significant is China's rapid economic development
and dramatic increase of national power. Could this be the cause
that stimulates some Japanese to mouth improperly, which, in
return, invites strong reaction from the Chinese side?
?
At the beginning of this year, the article points out, some
scholars from both China and Japan suggested there be "a new way of
thinking" to handle Sino-Japanese relations, which aroused fierce
dispute. Whether this "new thinking" is right or wrong, it is too
early to judge. Yet the co-existence of a rising China and a strong
Japan in Asia is a foreseeable future.
During an international conference held in Seoul at the end of
October, a non-governmental think tank from Japan said that China,
Japan and South Korea should work hard to wipe out barriers in
Northeast Asia and move towards an ideal direction of using the
same language and currency in the area on the basis of a shared
Confucian culture. However, scholars from both China and South
Korea pointed out that such a dream must be first based on mutual
trust, the article reports.
It will be a beautiful picture that a regional economic identity
emerges in Northeast Asia where the Chinese, Japanese and South
Korean people flow freely and work together for common prosperity,
comments the article.
It says that even though at the moment China and Japan haven't
reached consensus in some issues, all rational citizens in both
countries should treat incidents coolly and with a forward outlook.
On the one hand, history should not be forgotten; on the other,
bilateral relations should not be blocked by what happened in
history.
(China.org.cn by Zheng Guihong and Daragh Moller, November 23,
2003)