As the Chinese and Japanese foreign ministers met Wednesday on
the sidelines of the Asia Co-operation Dialogue in Doha, Qatar, it
was the fact that they finally met and talked after a year-long
absence of ministerial-level communication that really
mattered.
We had not expected the Doha meeting to generate excitement. It
was, to a certain extent, just another opportunity for each side to
say what has been said many times.
Indeed, the chief diplomats of the two countries did not move
much further beyond that formality.
Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing reiterated the stance that
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to the
controversial Yasukuni Shrine, where 14 Class-A war criminals
sentenced by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East
are enshrined, are the biggest obstacle to a thaw in bilateral
ties; while his Japanese counterpart, Taro Aso, repeated Koizumi's
appeal for Chinese understanding of his refusal to change
course.
As far as that lingering irritant is concerned, nothing seemed
to have changed. We may have to live with the Yasukuni ghosts until
at least the end of the Koizumi era in Japanese politics. Beyond
that, nobody knows.
There is little likelihood of Koizumi taking any steps to
improve the situation during his last days in office, even if that
is the only way to mend the strained relationship.
But neither of these two neighbors can afford to ignore the
other, this fact is dictated by political and economic
realities.
Such a protracted political estrangement may have high economic
costs for both parties, costs being increasingly felt on both
sides.
There is no easy solution to the diplomatic conundrum between
the two nations, since the Japanese leaders refuse to budge from
their erroneous stance on the question of history.
But for a genuine rapport to emerge across the narrow strip of
water that divides the two nations, there has to be trust in the
first place. To build that confidence, they first have to
communicate.
The true value of Wednesday's meeting lies exactly there it
re-opened a window for dialogue at a level where meaningful
decisions can be made.
That it happened at all shows that neither side wants to see a
continuation of the current stalemate. That message is important at
such a point.
The two sides' agreement to continue to consult over topics of
dispute shows a desire to limit differences within a manageable
scope. The proposal to facilitate people-to-people exchanges shows
an inspiring pragmatism when the bilateral ties have yet to
overcome the Yasukuni snag at the government level.
Governments and leaders change over time, but not the
people.
So it is essential for the two peoples to know more about each
other.
(China Daily May 25, 2006)
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