Wang Yi is China's vice-foreign minister again. The State
Council announced it yesterday after his three-year tenure as the
country's ambassador to Japan.
Before leaving Japan, Wang delivered a lecture in Tokyo on
September 10, during which the Chinese embassy in Japan's website
says he expounded his idea on "starting a new phase in the course
of Sino-Japanese friendship". The optimism and confidence with
which he talked about China-Japan ties was in sharp contrast to a
lecture he delivered just over nine months after taking over as
ambassador. The full text is available on the embassy's
website.
Wang was right the second time. China-Japan ties have indeed
entered a new phase after former Japanese prime minister Shinzo
Abe's "ice-breaking" visit to China last October and Premier Wen
Jiabao's "ice-thawing" visit to Japan in April this year.
Two years ago, however, Wang had focused on how the two major
Asian countries should "return to the basics, keep the promises,
overcome the difficulties and develop friendship". He used quite a
few euphemisms to describe the political coldness, marked by the
absence of regular official exchanges between top leaders for four
years.
"Wang assumed the ambassador's post when Sino-Japanese ties had
reached an ebb," says Liu Jiangyong, a senior researcher on Japan
at Tsinghua University's Institute of International Studies. Wang
told the media before his departure that he would "strictly observe
my duty, dedicate myself to our country and the people, forge ahead
and try to succeed in carrying out the mission", according to the
Foreign Ministry website.
Wang knew very well that the main obstacle on the road to
normalization of bilateral ties was senior Japanese leaders' visit
to Yasukuni Shrine that honors the war dead. "We have never
objected to common Japanese people visiting the Yasukuni Shrine to
pay respect to their beloved ones lost in World War II," Wang said
at Japan-China Friendship Association's annual national conference
in Tokyo on June 23, 2005. "But the Chinese people - who suffered
the most at the hands of the Japanese militarists - naturally
cannot accept it when leaders representing the Japanese government
visit the shrine to pay their respects to the war criminals."
The Chinese object to Japanese leaders' shrine visits because it
also honors 14 class-A World War II criminals. The International
Military Tribunal for the Far East in 1948 found them guilty of
brutal warfare, torture, rapes and killings in China and the
Asia-Pacific region during the war.
Though Wang never compromised on principles, he always had an
open mind. He was ready to explore more channels to solve the
existing bilateral problems and deepen mutually beneficial
cooperation in all sectors according to the principles laid out in
the three important political documents signed by China and
Japan.
After arriving in Japan in 2004, he told a press conference that
he hoped to make friends with the Japanese people from all sectors
to deepen mutual understanding and devise a developmental framework
for stable and long-term bilateral ties.
And he kept his word. Liu says Wang "traveled across Japan to
meet not only VIPs, but also the common people". It's easy to
recount his meetings with Japanese people in many of the places he
visited because all of them are documented on the Chinese embassy's
website. He attended many forums on issues ranging from culture,
economics and high-tech development to education, environmental
protection and energy efficiency, and used every opportunity to
forge Sino-Japanese collaboration in these fields.
He visited the museums dedicated to former Japanese prime
ministers Kakuei Tanaka and Masayoshi Ohira and attended the
funeral of Kimura Kazumi and the memorial service of Norio Shirato.
While the first two politicians were instrumental in normalizing
Sino-Japanese relations, the other two devoted their entire life to
deepen economic and cultural ties between the two peoples.
On November 6, 2004, Wang entertained about 300 Japanese living
or working near the Chinese embassy. Many of them were dressed in
festival clothes because they were entering the embassy compound
for the first time. "An ancient Chinese saying goes that neighbors
are dearer than distant relatives," Wang told his guests. "From a
global perspective, China and Japan are neighbors; in Tokyo, the
embassy and everyone around it are neighbors."
Throughout the evening party, the guests - among them
fire-fighters and a community chairman - sampled Chinese delicacies
prepared by the embassy chefs, listened to traditional Chinese
music and were entertained with a mask changing dance, made famous
by Sichuan Opera. "If you hope to visit China, please come to the
embassy first because here is China. If you have questions on
China, please ask us at the embassy. We will give you timely and
most authentic answers. If you have difficulties and need help,
please contact us as well, and we will provide all necessary help,"
he told his guests.
Yamazaki Akiko joined a number of embassy events in Tokyo during
her holidays at home in between her studies in China. "The Chinese
embassy did a lot of things to help common Japanese people
understand China better, such as inviting us Japanese to the
embassy as guests," says Akiko, who is now a graduate student of
journalism at the Renmin University of China. "I found it a good
way to communicate. Ambassador Wang speaks fluent and cultured
Japanese and is easily accepted by the Japanese people," she
says.
During his three years in Tokyo, Wang delivered more than 100
lectures at universities and other institutions, too, sharing in
earnest the vision of China on issues related to bilateral
relations and the world. Armed with economic and military
statistics from across world, Wang spoke about China's peaceful
rise and the reasons behind the increase in the country's military
budget while delivering a speech to military cadets at the National
Defense Academy of Japan on November 2, 2005.
Citing that year's figures, Wang said China's defense budget
totaled about $30.2 billion, while that of Japan was $45.4 billion,
even though China's total land area is 26 times and its population
11 times that of Japan's.
He quoted David Hale as saying that the openness with which
China was rising not only enabled it to succeed, but also
restricted its direction and constrained its behavior. Wang quoted
Hale as saying that China can hardly afford military expansion.
On April 15, 2006, he started a 10-lecture series on China at
Waseda University, during which Chinese diplomats took turns to
talk about China's development in areas such the economy, culture,
diplomacy, education, science and technology and foreign trade.
Among the events that Wang attended were the openings of new
Confucius institutes, arts exhibitions, film premieres and other
cultural events because he believes cultural exchanges are the best
medium to increase mutual understanding.
"I believe ambassador Wang and his team played their role in
thawing the ice in China-Japan relations," Liu Jiangyong says.
Today, China and Japan talk about taking forward their relations to
a new phase, forging strategic and mutually beneficial ties, but
Wang said before leaving Japan that bilateral relations still faced
challenges despite the opportunities that lay ahead.
"We need to continue our efforts to enhance mutual political
trust, expand common interest, improve people's understanding
towards each other to ensure long-term, stable and healthy
development of our relations," he said.
Besides promoting bilateral ties and understanding, Wang said
the embassy should also serve the about 600,000 Chinese living in
Japan. He used to invite such Chinese people to the embassy to
celebrate traditional festivals. He organized open house sessions
for them, too, so that they could learn more about the embassy's
work. During the first open session on June 26, this year, Wang,
held a mike, led a tour of his residence, explained in detail the
origins of the calligraphy works, porcelain and other art pieces
displayed there.
"I felt as if I was at home," says Lin Sifu, vice-president of
the Federation of Tokyo Overseas Chinese Associations.
Earlier this month, Wang read out a letter from the mother of a
student studying in Japan in his farewell speech to the Chinese
living in Japan. The mother had thanked the consulate staff for
helping her son, detained by the Japanese police in a case he was
not involved in. The consulate staff looked into the matter and
eventually helped clear his name and enabled him to return to his
studies.
"I must tell you that diplomats are public servants and it is
our duty to serve them," Wang told the gathering of Chinese in the
embassy. And that's something he really believes in.
(China Daily September 28, 2007)
