[Luigi Vasellini]

Japan needs to take some pressure off of us and become a military power again.

[Brilliant]

China is almost as belligerent as North Korea. It's kinda ironic that China is playing the good cop to Jung-Il's bad cop.

Of course, on the other hand, the "good cop" is not really good. He just pretends to be good.

[Calpernia]

Anyone else smelling an escalation?

[skeeter]

Does anyone really believe the Chinese government gives a rip about who visits the Yasukuni Shrine?

Their just doing what they love to do best, being the 800 lb gorilla of asia.

[Paul Ross]

"Face" to those in the orient is much more profoundly important than it is to most of us in the West. We are used to smarmy PR and glad-handing photo-ops papering over the starkest of disagreements.

This is not going down that way. This is a very big deal.

[monday]

"The Yasukuni cloud Last November, Chinese President Hu Jintao advised Koizumi in blunt terms not to visit the Yasukuni Shrine in 2005. "

The Chinese are political amateurs apparently. If they want to start a war with Japan there are better less idiotic methods to go about it. Telling the leader of a sovereign nation what he may and may not do in his own country is a sure fire way to make sure that the whole world thinks you are a prissy horses ass. I can't imagine anyone taking China's side on this.

[DTogo]

This is a bunch of media-hyped gomi (rubbish) blaming Japan for all that is wrong with Sino-Japanese relations. Yasukuni pilgrimage, Japanese militarism, Koizumi's confrontational, nail in the coffin, blah, blah, blah...

Japan * ping * (kono risuto ni hairitai ka detai wo shirasete kudasai : let me know if you want on or off this list)

[untenured]

A senior Japanese diplomat, who did not wish to be identified, told Asia Times Online, "It is a very worrying development. The Chinese have thrown down the gauntlet, and the worrying thing for us is that it looks like Mr Koizumi is going to pick it up."

Gosh, their diplomats talk just like ours do.

[The Electrician]

The Japanese public appears deeply divided over Koizumi's confrontational style, which has pushed Sino-Japanese relations onto the rocks.

No anti-Japanese bias in that statement, huh... Koizumi's style is anything but confrontational. The author doesn't seem able to understand that this issue is merely a pretext - in effect it is a proxy for real issues (such as conflicting territorial claims, ocean drilling, and the like).

[Wiz]

ping