Updated Monday, May 19, 2008 0:00 am TWN, By Joe Hung, Special to The China Post

China and Japan’s new honeymoon

A new honeymoon seems to be beginning between China and Japan as Chinese President Hu Jintao made a successful five-day state visit to the world’s second largest economy earlier this month. While in Tokyo, Hu met with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and they signed a joint communique promising not to pose any threat against each other, and proclaiming lasting peace and friendly cooperation as the only options open to the two rival neighbors. Their joint declaration is being hailed the world over as a milestone on the tortuous path to Sino-Japanese rapprochement. Emperor Akihito received Hu in audience three times to accentuate how assiduously Japan wants to cultivate the burgeoning friendship with Asia’s new economic giant.

Japan certainly needs that friendship. It cannot do without close cooperation with China if it hopes to further stimulate its stagnating economy. The United States under a new administration, which is all but certain to be Democratic, will be harsher on Japan in trade, while China offers an ever-expanding market. Tokyo needs Beijing’s support to become a “normal country” in the international community. Japan wants to join the U.N. Security Council as a permanent member to play a role commensurate with its economic power but its efforts have been thwarted by Chinese opposition. China is one of the five permanent members who enjoy veto power; without Beijing’s help, Japan can never hope to obtain that lofty status which Junichiro Koizumi, former Japanese premier, considers indispensable to his “normal country.”

Koizumi also relied too heavily on the United States for solving Japan’s issues in foreign relations. That actually backfired. South Korea and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) member states have remained suspicious of Japan, which during World War II formed a Great East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere that covered all of them, plus Manchukuo (Manchuria) and China under Wang Jingwei, as well as Burma. They can hardly forget all the wrongs the Japanese Imperial Army did to them during the war years. Friendly relations between Japan and China would end Tokyo’s near-isolation in Asia.

China, on the other hand, needs Japanese investment and high-tech expertise to continue developing its economy. Strong bilateral ties would help their economies. China is Japan’s biggest trading partner, while Japan is the biggest source of much needed investment and technology in China.

Cooperation between the two countries can also shore up regional security in Asia. That is why Hu Jintao told faculty and students of Waseda University in Tokyo the revival of Asia “cannot do without cooperation between China and Japan” and the two countries must look forward, not back.

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