China-Japan rivalry heats up

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Military confrontation
While the economic rivalry between China and Japan has long gone unspoken, military issues have been openly disputed between the two nations.

Japan recently irked China when it announced, in partnership with the United States, that Taiwan represented a “mutual security concern.” Tensions have also been raised over the disputed Senkaku or Diaoyu islands. And Japan’s latest defense blueprint pinpoints China as a potential military threat.

Meanwhile China has sent ships into the area Japan considers to be its “exclusive economic zone.” China has done so to prospect for oil and gas deposits, although some Japanese now claim that China is also mapping the ocean floor for future submarine use.

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The Japanese have reason to be suspicious. Less than a year ago, Japan detected a Chinese submarine in Japanese territorial waters. Beijing has also boosted its annual military budget to over $30 billion, which many Japanese consider a sign of aggressive build-up, though the figures pale in comparison with Japan’s own defense outlay.

China has also accused Japan of saber-rattling. Japan is expected to start production of U.S.-developed, land-based PAC-3 missiles that would be deployed in concert with the sea-based SM-3 missiles, for a joint U.S.-Japan missile defense system that China opposes. The Chinese suspect the system would cover Taiwan as well.

There has also been increased discussion in Japan over the once-untouchable Article 9 of the Japanese constitution. The article binds Japan to “forever” renounce war as an instrument of foreign policy. Many Chinese suspect that Japanese politicians’ call for altering the provision signals Japan’s dangerous ambition for a bigger military role in the world.

Clash over history
In many ways, the clash between Japan and China is all about history. China has regularly accused Japan of refusing to atone for its atrocities during the Second World War.

Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi’s pilgrimage to the Yasukuni Shrine, a memorial to war dead that include convicted top war criminals, has been a constant cause of Chinese indignation.

The latest flare-up over history is a result of the Japanese government’s approval of a controversial new textbook for 13 to 15-year-old students. The book refuses to describe Japan’s occupation of Asian countries as an “invasion.” The book also refers to the wartime Nanjing massacre-which killed more than a quarter million Chinese as merely an “incident,” and describes the disputed Senkaku islands as “sovereign territory.”

The dispute was made worse with Japan’s recent bid to join the U.N. Security Council. There was an outcry of protest across China after U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan backed a proposal to enlarge the council in late March. Within four days, over 11 million people had signed an online petition to oppose Japan gaining a permanent seat and veto power in the Security Council.

China’s Premier Wen Jiabao echoed the concern of his citizens regarding the U.N. Security Council when he stated that “only a country that respects history, takes responsibility for past history and wins over the trust of people in Asia and the world at large can take greater responsibility in the international community.”

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