Making amends

This was a summit with a difference. Mr. Zhu Rongji and his host, Mr. Yoshiro Mori, concentrated on damage limitation. All new ideas were postponed to `further study', says F. J. KHERGAMVALA.

CHINA'S PREMIER, Mr. Zhu Rongji, was in Japan for close to a week and it says much about the state of the Sino-Japan relationship that there was no new idea or plan that was decided on. Summitry normally takes place for signing new agreements negotiated by bureaucrats, and more recently, by businessmen and by info- technocrats. This was a summit with a difference. Mr. Zhu and his host, Mr. Yoshiro Mori, concentrated on damage limitation. All new ideas were postponed to ``further study''.

The relationship between Tokyo and Beijing needed damage control because it soured when China's President, Mr. Jiang Zemin, came to Japan in November 1998. Mr. Jiang constantly hectored Japan about not been apologetic about its past actions. He had tried to insert a Japanese apology into a joint document. Japan refused to sign it.

China had miscalculated. A month before Mr. Jiang came to Tokyo, the South Korean President, Mr. Kim Dae Jung, visited Japan. Japan and South Korea issued a joint declaration where the then Prime Minister, Keizo Obuchi, accepted the historic fact that Japanese colonial rule inflicted ``unbearable suffering and pain on the Korean people and expressed painfully deep repentance on the past and a heartfelt apology for the ordeal''.

What distinguished this apology from all others was that Japan specifically referred to the Korean people and Mr. Kim agreed to close the chapter, unlike China. Mr. Zhu this time complained, accurately, that Japan has not specifically said sorry to the Chinese people. But, keeping the broader relationship in mind, he did not press the issue and tactically took the wise step of saying that China makes a distinction between Japanese militants and the Japanese people. More important, he said that this Japanese generation should not be held responsible for the atrocities of 60-odd years ago. In fact they too ``were victims of militarism''.

Japanese consortia and companies are indeed looking for mega- contracts on mainland China, such as the Beijing-Shanghai bullet train link. But, the economic stakes for China are much bigger. In the real world, this is a relationship between the giver and the taker. China just cannot risk further political stress with Japan.

Mr. Zhu did not hide the purpose of his mission, nor the way he would go about it. He said the right things about the past but emphasised the need to look ahead. China needs help and investment from Japan, the source of nearly 47 per cent of all aid to China. Over the next decade, China will undertake development of its hinterland, in troubled areas such as the Xinjiang Autonomous region. One flagship project for which Mr. Zhu wants money is the Western Development Project, including a gas pipeline from Xinjiang to the coastal areas, with an estimated cost of $ 12 billions plus, about 65 per cent of all Japanese soft loans assistance to China over 20 years.

China knows that sentiment among the Japanese public and legislators is not what it was 15 years ago, when an earlier generation felt the guilt of Nanjing and all else that Japan did during World War II and before. Additionally, present-day China was into heavy defence spending, about which there was little transparency. Japan takes umbrage that its main potential adversary is borrowing money from Japan, to free up resources that go into developing weapons systems.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party provided Mr. Zhu a reminder of present-day Japanese sentiment by holding back a yen 17 billions plus soft loan ($ 160 millions) until Beijing clarified details about some suspicious naval activity in waters that Japan considers its Exclusive Economic Zone. The loan was eventually cleared, but only after China agreed to discuss an early notification system. China was forced to gulp this down despite its differences with Japan on maritime demarcation.

Mr. Zhu's charisma and methods served his mission. He reached out directly to the Japanese people through a televised town hall meeting. He played a Chinese stringed instrument to show he was not all politics and economics, but he also demonstrated an excellent grasp of his charge, with panache. Lacing his replies with humour, he nonetheless made his point. On China's birth control policy: ``If my country's citizens continue to bear children, the Earth would be full of Chinese.''

Complaining about being pilloried at home for not being tough on Japan, Mr. Zhu drew attention to what he had said earlier; he did not wish to stir up feelings among the Japanese people. On the Nanjing massacre: ``I do not want to touch on the issue, but since you asked, I say it was a fact.''

The visiting Premier rightly assessed that Chinese angst against Japan would not disappear, but he could not afford to waver in his mission. Kyodo News carried the results of an Internet poll done by Time magazine. Among young people, 65 per cent identified Japan as their least favourite country. In Japan, on the other hand, Mr. Zhu's wooing was debated. Many felt the Chinese Government's humility was feigned and tactical.

After the Jiang Zemin act, the Sino-Japan relationship had not raised its head above the water despite some top level visits. Then came the Japanese Self Defence Agency's report that said that this year alone Chinese surveillance or naval vessels had made 17 `intrusions' into Japan's economic zone. The Zhu visit was an attempt to restore calm.

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