FOCUS: Japan-China Ties Uneasy on 40th Anniversary of Amity Treaty

August 14, 2018

Beijing- Potential flare-ups that may instigate further conflicts remain in Japan-China relations, with this year marking a milestone for the conclusion of the nations' bilateral peace and friendship treaty.

Japan and China celebrated the 40th anniversary of the treaty on Sunday.

There were times when the diplomatic relations between the two nations hit rock bottom, but the two countries moved closer together last year and their leaders are expected to visit each other this and next year.

Still, sticking points that may trigger friction linger in the relations and mutual impressions have hardly improved.

"The time when many Japanese people felt favorably about China will never return," an official of the Japanese government said.

Ties became more cordial after Japan and China signed the treaty in 1978.

But China bolstered its anti-Japanese education from the 1990s and people in Japan became more wary of China, which was boosting its military and increasing its economic power.

In September 2012, when the administration of Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda nationalized some of the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, the relations soured rapidly, with some saying ties were at their worst since the two nations' diplomatic normalization in 1972. The islands in Okinawa Prefecture, southernmost Japan, are claimed by China, which calls them Diaoyu.

Chinese President Xi Jinping initially maintained a tough posture toward Japan after he took office in November 2012.

Yet momentum for talks surged after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced his support for China's One Road, One Belt development initiative for regions along the old Silk Road in June 2017. The trend toward improving relations picked up after Xi started his second term in office in October the same year.

In May this year, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited Japan, his first trip to the country after he assumed the post, and confirmed that Abe will visit China by the end of the year.

At their meeting on Aug. 2, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, shared a view that the relationship between their countries had returned to a normal path.

Xi is expected to visit Japan in June next year for the first time since he took up the post.

An expert on Sino-Japanese relations from China said that Abe and Xi are apparently moving forward to improve ties because they share a mutual political interest.

For Abe, mending fences with China, which has been called for by economic circles, will be one of his achievements for clinching a third straight term as president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Xi, for his part, will be able to call attention to his country's cooperation with Japan to those both inside and outside of China, amid an intensifying trade war with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, Japan and China have failed to resolve pending issues over perceptions of bilateral history.

Chinese coast guard ships are regularly seen entering Japanese territorial waters near the Senkaku Islands and China is unilaterally moving ahead with gas field development near the median line dividing the two nations. China is also pushing ahead with military base development in the South China Sea.

Many people in Japan dislike Xi's style of governance, which forcefully smothers opposition.

According to a survey in 2017 by Genron NPO, a Japanese private organization, and others, some 90 pct of Japanese said they had a bad impression of China and around 70 pct of Chinese people said they had a negative image of Japan.

While the figures are better than they were at one point, public sentiment on each side toward the other remains cold.

Under these circumstances, Chinese authorities arrested and indicted eight Japanese people on suspicion of being involved in spying activities in and after 2015. Two were handed prison sentences by Chinese courts in July this year.

When Japanese House of Representatives Speaker Tadamori Oshima held a meeting with Li Zhanshu, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, in late July, Oshima avoided bringing the matter up at the session. Li is the third-ranking official of the Communist Party of China, after the president and the premier.

"(Japan-China) relations will improve on the premise that the Japanese side won't instigate conflict, just like now," a senior official of the CCP said.

The two countries, however, still face a mountain of issues over which they have different views.

The improvement in Japan-China ties is skin-deep and there is a constant risk that the relations will become rocky once again, analysts say. Jiji Press