By Feng Zhaokui
Now that Yasuo Fukuda will be Japan's prime minister, it is expected that China and Japan will continue the process of improving bilateral relations that began with Prime Minister Abe's visit to China in October 2006, and create a new relationship geared to the 21st century.
An up-and-coming Japanese politician who claimed to be of the "strategy school" told this author that the strategy part was based on the theory of realism.
Realism in international relations today means hard-line diplomacy carried out by hawkish politicians. To these realists, the world of international relations is a "world of wolves". So some Chinese researchers maintain that China is "dancing with the wolves" in handling its relations with foreign countries. Any other approach would leave the country on the losing end of any bargain in international affairs, they believe.
However, China's leaders have formulated a strategy of bringing about a world in harmony. Can the notion of harmony translate into reality? Or is it just a utopian idea in the context of a jungle-style rivalry of national interests? The question of whether China can open up a road of peaceful development that is distinctly different from the one traveled by many Western powers as they rose hinges on these points of view.
In a disharmonious world, can one talk about peaceful development? Can we expect a world of wolves to tolerate the peaceful development of a big and populous country such as China?
All things considered, China's pursuit of a harmonious world is obviously a great undertaking, one never before attempted by humankind. It requires creativity and innovation in our foreign affairs theory and ideas.
Although hawkish American and Japanese politicians still cling to their realism, or the philosophy of the wolves, this author believes that their theory, spawned in the 20th century, cannot keep up with the changes in the world today. And the options based on this archaic theory are running increasingly against the will of the people.
There is one basic factor that helps explain this author's belief: Non-traditional security menaces such as global warming and environmental pollution, rather than traditional ones such as nuclear warfare, are the most realistic threat to the survival of humanity. This is in sharp contrast to the heyday of international realism, when people believed that environmental and natural resources were inexhaustible and there for humanity to wantonly draw upon.
A recent report by the International Panel on Climate Change indicates that the environment is undergoing profound changes and that human activities probably account for 90 percent of global warming, among other factors.
This author believes that environmental pollution and climate change will have a no less devastating impact on human civilization than a nuclear war. The drastically changing situation is bringing about a turning point for international relations, overhauling the international order and reshaping international ethics. This trend will eventually move the human race onto a new path of evolution. It could be said that humanity is standing at a fork in the road. One way leads to continual progress toward a win-win situation. The other leads to the abyss of total decay.
In terms of the relationship between China and Japan, geographical closeness not only facilitates cooperation, but also makes it easier to do each other harm.
Modern weapons make it impossible for one country to inflict damage on another without retribution. At the same time, all countries must care about the environment without regard to their geographical closeness. In other words, peaceful co-existence benefits both China and Japan, while conflicts harm both. This holds true whether we are discussing environmental or military affairs.
Japan would be traveling down a blind alley if it were to return to the old militarist ways that led to World War II. The changing winds in the world today are bound to arouse pacifist forces inside Japan to thwart the hawkish politicians' attempts to get the country back on the road leading to war.
Some political elements inside Japan are calling for a revision of Japan's pacifist constitution, and heated debate on the issue is under way. Those who advocate revising the ninth article of the constitution claim that Japan is under threat from outside, implying Japan should be on guard against a military threat from China.
State-to-state relationships are a process of interaction. How Japan treats China depends to a large extent on how China treats Japan, and vice versa. Obviously, it is imperative for us to win over the Japanese people by demolishing the China threat theory.
In the wake of Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to Japan in April this year, a Japanese defense expert remarked that the biggest threat to Japan's security came from China's "reconciliation strategy towards Japan". His words showed that right-wing Japanese politicians really feel threatened by China's Japan policy, which was put forward by President Hu Jintao. It calls for peaceful co-existence, friendship down the generations, mutual beneficial co-operation and common development.
China's reconciliation strategy provides Japan and the Japanese people a golden opportunity for peaceful development, rather than a threat.
The author is a researcher with the Institute of Japanese Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
(China Daily September 25, 2007)
