Free Republic

Adding to the extreme emotion felt by Chinese people has been the outpouring of sympathy and support from the world community. Perhaps the most poignant and heartwarming outreach in the minds of the Chinese people, however, has come from Japan, a country that has often been the object of hate and disgust in China since World War II. On Friday, a 60-member Japanese rescue team arrived in Chengdu to assist with the rescue effort. Since their arrival, they have been regularly seen on Chinese state television using some of the most technologically advanced equipment in the world to try to...

Japan and China need to establish a “strategic partnership based on equality”, according to the policy chief of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic party, acknowledging that Tokyo could no longer afford to treat China as an upstart power. Hidenao Nakagawa, who is expected to be an important figure in any future cabinet led by Shinzo Abe, the frontrunner to replace Junichiro Koizumi as prime minister in September, told the Financial Times: “There is no precedent in Asia for two big countries to have a strategic partnership based on equality. We want to establish such a strategic partnership with China. That’s what...