Tom Plate
Professor at University of California, Los Angeles
Director of Asia Pacific Media Network
NEW YORK _ It is always fascinating for us geozoologists and political junkies to observe the behavior of jungle animals trying to act as if they are getting along beautifully when in fact they basically can’t stand each other.
That, for example, would be China and Japan _ the two biggest elephants co-habiting the East Asian jungle. These elephants brandish enormous tusks for all to see, and when they tussle at one another (as they do often) and then roll around on the grassy plain, all the smaller animals of Asia feel the ground rumbling and take cover with the hope that the tussling will be over soon.
Just two years ago, angry mobs in China were smashing Japanese government offices and retail stores. Nationalist and anti- Japanese fervor rose as then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi defied Asian public opinion with public visits to a Tokyo war shrine that seemed to suggest to non-Japanese, an insensitivity over Japan’s wartime brutality. All that occurred more than 60 years ago, of course, but in international relations, memories die hard.
Last week, the Japanese and Chinese elephants were making nice and indeed it was nice to watch. The occasion was the visit of China’s number-two, Wen Jiabao, to Japan. He is a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee and premier of the State Council, which in effect is China’s federal Cabinet. Perhaps because he is only numbertwo, as Avis, America’s secondlargest car-rental company puts it in its famous advertising campaigns, he tries harder to project a kinder, gentler image of China.
“He is like Asia’s Clinton,” remarked an admiring young female Chinese lawyer in Beijing, “He is trying to show that once again soft power can work better than hard power.”
To this end, Wen, in Tokyo, used his address to parliament (the first Chinese leader to address the Diet in 22 years) to stroke easily ruffled Japanese egos. While not ignoring the brittle issue of Japan’s wartime history, Wen emphasized the need to rise above old differences and move forward with an agenda of common interests.
Since his historic address was broadcast live not only in Japan but into China as well, it served to indicate to China’s 1.3 billion people as well as Japan’s 130 million that it was time for everyone to stop smashing windows and visiting shrines and instead repair relations.
Commented a top-ranking career Japanese diplomat: “Wen’s speech at the Diet was very interesting and overall well received by the political leaders in Japan.” It should have been. For Wen even expressed sympathy for Japan’s quarrel with China’s erstwhile ideological ally North Korea, accused of continuing to harbor Japanese abductees. The Chinese government would work to resolve the issue, said Wen.
I won’t waste too much time of your time relaying how the cuddly Premier Wen played a little baseball with a Japanese university team and held up a few babies and so on. The point is that Wen was making every effort to convey to his own people as well as to the Japanese that the time had come to raise Chinese-Japanese diplomacy to a new level of maturity.
And so it is in this spirit that the bilateral ball is now in the court of the Japanese prime minister. In truth, Shinzo Abe made a good start last October by visiting Beijing, and looks to be considering another visit at the end of this year.
And later this month, Prime Minister Abe looks to be headed for Washington for his first official visit. As one of the few countries to significantly help the Bush administration in its illadvised invasion of Iraq, Japan holds a special place in President George Bush’s emotional nexus. Abe will get the star Camp David-visit treatment as well.
Let’s hope the president and his top officials listen to Abe as well as falter him. No doubt the PM will wish to suggest that the United States pays too much attention to the Middle East and that the future of the world is in Asia and China _ not over there. The Japanese are worth listening to for many reasons. One is that they are an ally whose economy is on the rise again and whose military is technologically one of the world’s most advanced.
China’s Wen, while in Tokyo, did his share of listening and that trait is one reason China has been around for something like 5,000 years. The United States has a lot of ground to make up in the longevity department. Listening to our elders might just be one way to get there as well.