[list_indonesia] [ppiindia] Japan stokes tensions with China

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http://wsws.org/articles/2005/apr2005/japa-a16.shtml

Japan stokes tensions with China
By John Chan
16 April 2005
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Tensions between Japan and China are continuing to escalate. Tokyo has harshly 
criticised Beijing's failure to put an end to anti-Japanese protests, which are 
set to erupt again this weekend. After demonstrations last weekend, Japan's 
Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura summoned the Chinese ambassador in Tokyo to 
lodge a formal complaint, demanding an apology, stronger security measures for 
the Japanese embassy and businesses in China, and compensation for damage.

Tens of thousands of people took part in demonstrations in dozens of cities 
across China last weekend. In Beijing, protesters gathered outside the Japanese 
embassy in Beijing, chanted anti-Japanese slogans and hurled rocks at the 
building. In Shanghai, two Japanese students were beaten up. The protests, 
which began as an Internet campaign against Japan's efforts to gain a seat on 
the UN Security Council, were further inflamed by the official Japanese 
approval of a history textbook that whitewashes the crimes of Japanese 
imperialism in the 1930s and 1940s.

Japan's demands have put China in a quandary. Having openly embraced capitalist 
relations, the Beijing bureaucracy has increasingly stirred up nationalist 
sentiment as a means of creating a social base for the regime and to divert 
attention from mounting social tensions. At the same time, however, China does 
not want to jeopardise economic relations with Japan, which is a major investor 
and trading partner.

Above all, Beijing fears that any protests will rapidly get out of its control 
and become a focus for widespread anger and discontent against the government 
over deepening social inequality, unemployment and poverty. While seeking to 
rein in the demonstrations, Chinese leaders cannot afford to appear to be 
appeasing Japan, which could trigger a broader movement and destabilise the 
regime itself. Beijing has clamped down on websites calling for demonstrations, 
and declared that it does not endorse "violence". It has urged people this 
weekend to attend only officially authorised protests.

The Japanese government, on the other hand, is deliberately turning up the 
heat. In the midst of the first wave of protests, Japanese authorities gave the 
green light for the publication of controversial new history textbooks drawn up 
by the right-wing Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform. The avowed aim 
of the society is to encourage Japanese nationalism and pride in Japan's 
wartime "liberation" of Asia. It dismisses Japanese wartime atrocities as the 
product of Western propaganda.

The new history textbooks, for example, deny that Japan deliberately provoked 
war with China in July 1937, repeating the absurd pretext that the full-scale 
Japanese invasion resulted from an isolated incident of Chinese guards firing 
on Japanese troops. The books also blame China for "forcing" Japan to intervene 
and annex Korea in 1890s and then Manchuria in 1931. References to Japanese 
troops exploiting "comfort woman" or forced sex slaves-most of them Chinese and 
Korean-have been dropped.

Controversy first erupted over the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform 
in July 2001 when the government of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi formally 
rejected demands from South Korea and China for revisions to the society's 
books. The society, which was established in 1997, includes hundreds of 
political and business leaders and is sponsored by major corporations such as 
Mitsubishi Motors and Isuzu Motors. The recent decision to authorise new texts 
in the midst of anti-Japanese protests in China can only be interpreted as a 
calculated move to heighten tensions.

If any further confirmation of Koizumi's provocative intentions were required, 
it was provided on Wednesday. Tokyo announced that it had authorised Japanese 
companies to begin drilling for oil in an area of the East China Sea that is in 
dispute between the two countries. Having refrained from taking such a step for 
years, the move in the midst of the current crisis has only hardened Beijing's 
position. China lodged a formal protest and declared that it "retains the right 
to take further action" over the drilling. Both countries are major importers 
of oil and gas and thus rivals for supplies.

China, which holds a permanent UN Security Council seat and thus a veto, has 
taken a tougher stance on Japan's membership of the body. Speaking on Tuesday, 
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao declared that Japan had to "face up" to its wartime 
history. "Only a country that respects history, takes responsibility for 
history and wins over the trust of peoples in Asia and the world at large can 
take greater responsibilities in the international community," he said.


Japanese nationalism

Japanese politicians have blamed Beijing for the tensions and accused it of 
stirring up nationalism. Speaking on the television program "Sunday Project", 
Shinzo Abe, acting secretary general of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party 
(LDP), declared that deepening social inequality was behind the anti-Japanese 
protests. Beijing, he claimed, was using Japan as "an outlet to vent that 
anger". While the Chinese bureaucracy certainly encourages nationalism for that 
purpose, the same is true of the Japanese government.

Prime Minister Koizumi, in particular, has pursued a political strategy of 
whipping up right-wing nationalism both to divert social discontent and to 
pursue the ambitions of sections of the Japanese ruling class to rearm and to 
take a more aggressive stance within the Asian Pacific region. Shortly after 
coming to power in 2001, Koizumi provoked the initial controversy over the 
textbooks and then pointedly visited the Yasakuni shrine where convicted 
Japanese war criminals are interred.

After more than a decade of economic stagnation, unemployment in Japan is at 
record levels, the guarantee of life-long employment is disappearing and social 
inequality is growing. These shifts have produced deep-going social tensions 
and widespread alienation from the entire political establishment, reflected in 
plunging voter turnouts for elections. Koizumi is seeking to fashion a social 
base for the LDP by promoting a revival of Japanese nationalism and militarism.

At the same time, Koizumi has sought to circumvent the so-called pacifist 
clause in Japan's post-World War II constitution that limits Japan's military 
to the country's immediate defence. The key factor in enabling him to do so has 
been the backing of the Bush administration, which has encouraged Japan to 
change its constitution, to build up its military and to take a more "active" 
role in North East Asia-against China in particular.

Despite overwhelming popular opposition in Japan, Koizumi committed troops to 
the US occupation of Iraq-both to cement ties with Washington and as a 
precedent for the dispatch of Japanese military forces to other active war 
zones. With the backing of Washington, Japan has pursued an aggressive policy 
in North East Asia.

Last November, Tokyo responded to the intrusion of a Chinese submarine into 
Japanese waters by dispatching warships to chase the vessel and by stirring up 
an outcry against China. In December, a National Defence Program Outline 
identified China for the first time as Japan's largest security concern in the 
next decade. In a joint statement with the US in mid-February, Japan, again for 
the first time, openly referred to Taiwan as a mutual security concern-a move 
that potentially commits Japan to join the US in backing Taiwan in a war with 
China.

Significantly, in the current crisis the Bush administration has lined up 
behind Koizumi. White House spokesman Richard Boucher declared on Tuesday: 
"China does have a responsibility to prevent violence against foreign missions 
in Beijing. We think that it's very regrettable that this one did turn violent; 
it was not under control." As well as underscoring the hypocrisy of 
Washington's ritual calls for "freedom of expression" in China, the statement 
will only encourage Koizumi to take tougher measures. His decision to give the 
green light for drilling in the East China Sea came the following day.


Corporate nervousness in Japan

Within Japan, Koizumi is exploiting the crisis to the hilt to quell opposition 
to his policies. Posturing as the defender of Japanese citizens, he demanded on 
Tuesday that China take "responsibility in securing Japanese free activity in 
China. We need this to be fully acknowledged by China". LDP secretary general 
Tsutomu Takebe went one step further, denouncing the Chinese demonstrations on 
Sunday as "almost equal to attacking Japan".

At the same time, there is a distinct nervousness in ruling circles in Tokyo 
over the potential economic fall-out from the confrontation. Japan's recent 
limited "recovery" has been based on exports to China and the increased 
exploitation of cheap Chinese labour. The Nikkei share market index has already 
fallen sharply, with corporations and banks with investments in China hit 
especially hard.

Takeo Fukui, chief executive of the auto giant Honda, told a press conference: 
"We are worried. We want to stay low-key at this sensitive time, and we want to 
reduce the number of overseas trips [to China]." Local Japanese executives have 
been instructed to be careful and to avoid addressing Chinese workers as baka 
or stupid, a wartime insult used by Japanese troops. Japanese companies are 
notorious for their physical abuse of workers in China as well as low wages and 
poor conditions.

These concerns are reflected in "liberal" sections of the Japanese press, which 
have reservations about Koizumi's right-wing nationalism. An editorial 
yesterday in the Asahi Shimbun, for instance, called for "cool heads" over 
drilling in the East China Sea and "efforts to build a mature relationship from 
which everyone can benefit". Earlier in the week, the newspaper opposed the 
official endorsement of the new history textbooks. At the same time, however, 
the newspaper has declared that the Chinese government must "not tolerate such 
violent demonstrations".

The Asahi Shimbun's concession to anti-Chinese sentiment underlines the degree 
to which the entire political establishment has lined up behind Koizumi. 
Significantly, the opposition Democratic Party of Japan is also falling in 
behind Koizumi's campaign, with its deputy leader Ichiro Ozawa declaring: "It's 
unforgivable that the Chinese government gave demonstrators silent approval."

It is yet to be seen to what extent this nationalist campaign will be 
successful. Large sections of the population, particularly young people, are 
antagonistic not just to the government, but all political parties. Moreover 
there is a deeply rooted hostility to attempts to revive Japanese militarism as 
demonstrated by the widespread opposition to the dispatch of Japanese troops to 
Iraq and efforts to revive the ideology and symbols of Japan's wartime imperial 
regime.

In ruling circles internationally, there are fears that the tensions in North 
East Asia could lead to a political collapse in China, open conflict between 
the two countries, or both.

Referring to the precedent of the May 4 movement in 1919, when anti-Japanese 
protests turned on a corrupt Chinese government, the Financial Times warned: 
"That pattern has persisted to this day. And so has the explosive mixture in 
Chinese rebellions of xenophobia and anti-government protests... It is often 
forgotten that student protests in China in the 1980s, culminating in Tiananmen 
Square in 1989, also began with riots against foreign students and 'Japanese 
militarism'.

"Even as the latest anti-Japanese demonstrations erupted in Beijing and 
Shanghai, tens of thousands of villagers began rioting in Zhejiang province 
[last Sunday], protesting against miserable economic and environmental 
conditions. Anti-Japanese demonstrations spilled over to Hong Kong this week 
and many more are being planned for this weekend in at least 10 Chinese cities. 
Chinese websites are buzzing with angry rhetoric. And the anniversary of the 
May 4 Movement is looming," the newspaper noted.

While most of the media has focussed on the implications of Chinese 
nationalism, the Los Angeles Times, in a comment entitled "Japan's revisionist 
history", warned of the dangers of Japanese militarism. "The ultimate 
consequence of whitewashing the past could be the demise of Japan's admirable 
Peace Constitution, allowing Japan to retool its formidable industrial base 
into a weapon industry threatening its neighbors and possibly triggering an 
unprecedented arms race and another world war," it stated.

The potential for a military clash between the two countries over the disputed 
area of the East China Sea cannot be ruled out. In an editorial yesterday 
condemning China for "violating norms of international relations" over the 
maritime disagreement, the conservative Yomuiri Shimbun condemned previous 
governments for their "ostrich policy on issues concerning Japan's giant 
neighbour". It concluded by urging the government to "take every possible 
measure to protect ships digging experimental wells" and to pass legislation to 
deploy Japanese naval vessels to do so.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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