Over the past week, from Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi as well as political figures of the Diet at the top down to right-wing media and public figures have all censured China, this was caused by the incident wherein five unidentified persons broke into Japanese Consulate in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, on May 8.
After the occurrence of the consulate intrusion incident, the Chinese side conducted conscientious investigation and verification and made the investigation result known to the public. In fact, the incident is not at all complicated. However, the Japanese side, ignoring the truth of the matter, seizes on the incident to exaggerate matters, and launches attacks on China over and again. What is Japan up to in doing so?
Is the Chinese Armed Police Act "Illegal" Or Lawful?
At about two o'clock on the afternoon of May 8, five men and women suddenly rushed through the entrance into Japanese Consulate in Shenyang. The Chinese armed policeman then on duty was not clear about the intention of the five persons. In the face of such an unexpected emergent situation, he tried his best to stop their act of consulate intrusion. When Miyashita Ken, Japanese deputy consul general, hurried to the front door upon learning about the news, three persons had been subdued by the Chinese armed policeman at the gate, whereas the other two had run through the gate into the waiting room for visa application. After receiving a report on the incident, five to six Chinese armed policemen came up to help and entered into the consulate upon obtaining agreement of Miyashita Ken, they carried the two men off. Then, Hideharu Umaki, the Japanese deputy consul-general in charge of security, came to the guardroom of the armed police detachment to acquaint himself with the situation. Members of the Chinese local police station came and, with the agreement of Hideharu Umaki, carried the five persons off. Umaki also expressed thanks for the armed policemen.
After the occurrence of the incident, the Japanese side did not bother to look into the rights and wrongs of the event. Japanese Ambassador to China Koreshige Anami first lodged a strong protest against the Chinese side, charging Chinese armed police with "intruding into" Japanese consulate in Shenyang. Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister Takeuchi Yukio on May 9 met with Chinese Ambassador Wu Dawei to Japan according to an appointment, truculently attacking the Chinese side for forcibly carrying off the five persons without giving attention to the consulate officials' demand for looking into the case of the consulate intruders and thus violating the 1961 Vienna Convention. Prime Minister Koizumi, in answering reporters' questions, also said, "We lodged protest only after China had really violated the Vienna Convention".
On May 9, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman solemnly declared, "It was against the background of the current global anti-terrorism that Chinese guards on duty carried away the unidentified persons who illegally rushed into Japanese Consulate General in Shenyang, and this was done completely out of consideration of the security of the consulate general and its staff and was therefore conforming to the related stipulations of the Vienna Convention."
The Japanese side, totally ignoring China's explanations and answers, continued to react toughly to China. On May 10, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi summoned Chinese Ambassador Wu Dawei to Japan, demanding China to apologize for the incident and to return to Japan the five consulate-general intruders, and warning the Chinese side that the incident would harm Japan-China bilateral relationship.
On May 10, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan had a talk about the event, saying that in accordance with the Vienna Convention, the Chinese side is duty-bound to adopt necessary measures to guarantee the security of the consulate general. The fact that the forcible intrusion into the consulate general by five unidentified persons without having performed normal formalities made it possible to endanger the security of the consulate and its staff. The above measures were taken by Chinese armed policemen purely out of a sense of responsibility and were conforming to the relevant stipulations of the said convention. The saying about the unauthorized entry of the Chinese side into the Japanese Consulate General was untenable. The Japanese side should act in calmness and should understand the Chinese move with good intention, so as to avoid the escalation of the situation.
The Japanese Foreign Ministry on May 11 denied the fact that the Japanese Consulate General agreed with the Chinese policemen's entry, it summoned Chinese Ambassador Wu Dawei to Japan, expressed its regret over the matter and demanded the Chinese side to give explanations. The situation did escalate as expected.
Analysts maintain that the act of Chinese police is irreproachable. Article 31 of the Vienna Convention effective in 1961 prohibited by official order the recipient country's entry into the embassy or consulate without the agreement of embassy or consulate officials, but it also clearly stipulates that the recipient country bears special responsibility and should take appropriate steps to protect the embassy or the consulate building from intrusion and harm. Neither Chinese armed policemen then on duty of guarding Japanese Consulate, nor the public security police who later came were clear about the identity and aim of the five consulate intruders. But at the critical juncture of the occurrence of the incident and under the circumstance wherein the entire situation was still not clear, is it wrong for the Chinese armed policemen to first carry out their duty of protecting the Japanese Consulate General?
Is the Consulate Incident Accidental or Deliberately Plotted?
The Shenyang consulate incident became the headline news of Japanese media. The newspapers carried a series of photos showing unidentified intruders into Japanese Consulate General, TV stations air played videotapes about the entire process of the incident. People cannot but ask: Was it so coincidental that the journalists were on site when the incident took place?
The evening issue of Yomiuri Shimbun on May 9 unveiled the secret behind the incident: The intrusion by unidentified persons into Japanese Consulate General was engineered and directed by some people, before the occurrence of the incident, related media journalists had been together with these unidentified persons; the incident was aimed at "setting difficult questions" to the Chinese government.
The report revealed that some non-governmental organizations of the Republic of Korea (ROK) had come to contact in advance with the Yonhap News Agency and other media, asking them to "wait" at the place opposite to the entrance of the Japanese Consulate General in Shanyang and set up the camera. The Yonhap News Agency and Kyodo News Service were responsible for taking photos, and AP and AFP were responsible for the pictures and texts. The sponsor of the incident, a ROK non-governmental organization having relation with a basilica had begun plotting the incident last month. Yomiuri Shimbun also carried a photo taken by AP and showing the action of the unidentified before they started off. It is thus clear this incident was something jointly "directed" by relevant organizations and press institutions.
The article quoted the analyses by related experts as saying that the deliberate intrusion into the consulate was done by people with sinister intention. When the armed policemen shouldering the security-defense duty suddenly saw some people breaking into the consulate, their first reaction was, of course, to prevent the intruders' possible sabotage of the consulate's security order. If the armed policemen should fail to stop the persons from rushing into the consulate, the schemers of the incident would definitely censure "Chinese armed policemen for being neglectful in security defense".
If this incident was something plotted out, then the media had played therein an inglorious part.
Most Japanese media used very strong words in reporting on the incident. Japan's right-wing newspaper Sankei Shimbun even used this big headline: "Strong Protest against (China's) Encroachment on Sovereignty".
To counter the act of certain Japanese media which recently made a great noise about the Shenyang consulate incident, Minister Zhao Qizheng of the Information Office of the Chinese State Council said in Japan on May 13 that how the media operate is of practical significance. He said that Chinese armed policemen dragged the intruders out of the consulate within a very short period, this was completely aimed at guaranteeing the security of the Japanese Consulate General, these policemen are devoted to their duty and brave the danger of possible sacrifice of their lives, this is not an alarmist talk, there is precedent of such thing in China. In this sense, thanks should be given to the Chinese armed policemen for the act they took. Why should their brave action be exaggerated into action with hostility? Why should the nature of the matter be turned upside down? Why is it that some news media made a big fuss about this? Why should there be cartoons satirizing leaders of the two countries? Some media expressed boundless sympathy when the term "seeking asylum" was mentioned. Conversely, if, in the future, Chinese armed policemen cease stopping intruders into Japanese consulate and let them do as they want, then what situation would result? Is this the hope of the Japanese side?
Zhao Qizheng maintained that the media should play a "stabilizer" role between the general public and the government.
Real Reason Behind Japan's Incessant Escalation of the Incident
When Japanese officials lodged protest against the incident, some influential political figures inside Japanese Liberal Democratic Party seized on this event to publish inciting statements. Japanese right-wing newspapers and politicians took advantage of the opportunity to spread anti-China statements.
Although the Chinese side has repeatedly demanded Japan to calmly and prudently handle the event, however, the result was that the Japanese side became more and more truculent, giving the sense of "making a punitive expedition against" China. Some Japanese media also hold that the Japanese government's reaction to this matter is obviously not calm enough. According to Jiji Press (Jiji Tsushin-sha), on May 8 when Japanese Embassy in China and Japanese Foreign Ministry's document mentioned this incident, the unidentified persons were regarded as "suspects" who "intruded" into the consulate and had "unlawful conduct", and the armed policemen on duty "entered into" the consulate, the armed policemen's action was later changed into "broken into". The attitude of the Japanese foreign affairs authority was puzzling when it took a round-about turn. Analysts noted that the Japanese government, which places one-sided stress on "dignity" while neglecting the actual condition is not only unhelpful to the solution of the event, but also itself has fallen into the trap laid by those who do not hope to see the development of China-Japan relationship.
Obviously, the fact that the Shenyang consulate event has developed to its present extent is completely caused by the Japanese side. According to the analysis made by a commentator of the China Daily website, the real reason behind the diplomatic disturbances between China and Japan is the rapidly expanding nationalism and right-wing mentality inside Japan.
The mainstream thinking in Japan's political arena has all along contained great prejudice and the psychology of precaution. Such understanding was more or less restrained during the period when Japan enjoyed economic prosperity and when it was filled with a sense of superiority over China. However, since the 1990s, Japan has suffered sustained economic depression whereas China has enjoyed sustained, rapid economic development. This fact has caused Japan's view of being passive and hostile toward China to become increasingly superficial and open. The all-round rightward turn of Japanese society has all the more aggravated the strong tendency of so-called need to shake off Japan's weakness in its policy toward China. The right-wingers are trying their utmost to pursue the "Japanese standard" for Japan's relations with China.
Analysis says that there was an international background for the consulate intrusion action by the five persons, in the entire process Western reporters had been waiting for and taking photos. The photos and videotapes had been repeatedly air played, what Japanese people saw seemed to be only the rudeness of Chinese armed policemen when they tried their best to stop the intrusion; what the videotapes want to expressed also contained sympathy with so-called "refugees". This further aggravated some Japanese people's dissatisfaction with China's stopping intrusion and carrying off the intruders. Politicians of the Liberal Democratic Party and right-wing forces, for the interests of obtaining votes and personal political prestige, do not hesitate to play up the matter and launch attack on China so as to display their "spirit" of so-called statesmen. Furthermore, Japanese right-wing politicians have all along felt depressed in the face of China's strong opposition on such question of visit to Yasukuni Shrine, textbook as well as the Taiwan issue. Now they finally can "find fault" with China through the consulate incident. The Japanese Foreign Ministry, in the face of the pressure of the political circle, cannot but persist in a "diplomatic war" with China over the escalated consulate incident.
Analysts hold that the 30th anniversary of the normalization of China-Japan diplomatic relationship should have been an excellent opportunity for the two countries to "take history as a mirror, and look forward to the future". Japan, however, failed to act calmly and understand with good intention the move taken by the Chinese side in the consulate incident. Instead it has taken steps to exacerbate the situation. This has compelled us to ask: What is Japan up to?
( May 16, 2002)
