China's Mrs Fixit Reignites Row With Japan

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 5-25-2005 | Richard Spencer

[blam]

China's Mrs Fixit reignites row with Japan

By Richard Spencer in Beijing
(Filed: 25/05/2005)

Diplomatic hostilities between China and Japan exploded into life again yesterday after a Chinese politburo member known as Mrs Fixit snubbed her hosts by ending a visit to Tokyo a day early.

No reason was given for Wu Yi's failure to meet Junichiro Koizumi, the Japanese prime minister, thereby missing talks supposed to improve relations between the economic giants. But it became clear that the snub was deliberate when the Chinese media reopened a campaign of vilification against Mr Koizumi.

The countries have been at loggerheads over what China sees as Japan's lack of remorse for war-time atrocities such as the Rape of Nanjing, in which hundreds of thousands were killed.

Yesterday's China Daily, the English-language voice of the Communist Party, savaged Mr Koizumi's insistence on visiting the controversial Yasukuni shrine which honours Japan's war dead, among them war criminals.

"Such visits are like a sitting German chancellor annually visiting the bunker where Hitler committed suicide in order to honour the Nazi leadership," it said. "The world would not tolerate such an act. So how can this kind of thing happen in Japan?"

Miss Wu, a vice-premier and the only woman in the politburo, was an important choice of emissary to mend fences with Japan because she is widely seen as the country's Mrs Fixit.

Her visit was supposed to flesh out suggestions for better ties made by Mr Koizumi and China's president, Hu Jintao, in April after a series of violent anti-Japanese protests in Chinese cities.

On her trip Miss Wu met Japanese businessmen and delivered a lecture on Asia's rapid development.

But then Tokyo was told she was being forced to cut short her trip, including a courtesy call on Mr Koizumi, because of urgent business at home.

This "urgent business" did not prevent Miss Wu flying off yesterday morning on her next assignment, to China's impoverished northern neighbour Mongolia.

Tokyo politicians described the snub as "rude". The foreign minister, Nobutaka Machimura, said there had been no word of apology. "There is supposed to be a word of apology and without it a society cannot function," he added.

The trigger for the snub was a comment by Mr Koizumi on the Yasukuni issue made after Miss Wu's arrival.

"The criticism that this glorifies war is not right," he said on Friday. "I visit as a person and not as part of my duty as prime minister."

Yesterday China's official spokesman, Kong Quan, suggested that Mr Koizumi had made the meeting impossible by remarks that "go against the efforts to improve Sino-Japanese relations". He added: "China is extremely unsatisfied with it."

Although Mr Koizumi and his predecessors have expressed personal remorse for Japan's war-time conduct, the lack of formal compensation and the Yasukuni visits make anti-Japanese feeling the one emotion that virtually all Chinese people share.

Such hostility also chimes with China's strategic goal of expanding its influence in Asia and ensuring access to energy supplies for which the two nations are competing.

Beijing is also preparing to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the end of what it calls the Sino-Japanese war of 1937-45. Mr Kong said the Japanese should have been aware that this was a sensitive anniversary. "They are showing no sense of correctness in their hearts while they are doing this," he added.

[Brilliant]

I'm guessing that if China invaded Japan with a conventional force, they'd lose a million or more soldiers. If they attack with nukes, they'd lose a few hundred million.

The Japanese don't have a defensive capability now, but by the time China was ready to attack, they'd have one. The Japanese are a heck of a lot more industrious and efficient than the Chinese.