China prepares itself to be a responsible power

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-10-12 20:55

TOKYO -- China has become the center of East Asia thanks to its tenacious drive for reform and opening up over the past 30 years, and how to play its due role in the region is a major task China is charged with in the coming years, said a senior Japanese newsman in an interview.

Kiyoshi Nakagawa, who heads the international department of Kyodo News, has found himself linked with China by an unbreakable bond since the early 1980s, when China had just adopted the policy of reform and opening up and foreigners began to be allowed entry into China's Tibet Autonomous Region.

"In the early 1980s, the Japanese media focused mostly on China's domestic affairs and Japan-China relations, notably its leaders," said Nakagawa, who, as a Kyodo News reporter, went into Tibet with a Japanese mountain climbing team in 1981 and later served as the agency's bureau chief in China.

With the deepening of China's reform and opening up in the 1990s, the focus of Japanese news reports about China began to shift from its domestic affairs to the fields of economy and diplomatic relations, said the senior newsman, who has pursued a successful career in the press in sync with the process of China's reform and opening up and thus become a witness to the changes in Japan's media reports about China.

"In the 21st century, with worldwide attention concentrated on its rise, China took the opportunity of the Beijing Olympics and set out to prepare itself to be a responsible power," he said.

The policy of reform and opening up has brought about profound changes in various aspect of China's society, Nakagawa said.

"What impresses me most, among others, is that young people in China have assumed an entirely new look in their way of thinking and their outlook on life, which are characterized by the enterprising spirit of constantly forging ahead," he said, adding that vigor and vitality are thus felt in every aspect of the Chinese society.

Concerning the effects exerted by the policy on Japan, Nakagawa said that Japan has profited greatly from China's enormous market, which involves 1.3 billion people.

"As a 'world factory' opening up to the world, China attracted hosts of Japanese enterprises with its cheap labor resources, which, in turn, invigorated Japan's industrial sector," he said.

"Economic exchanges and cooperation between the two countries laid a solid foundation for the improvement of bilateral political relations, and in this sense, China's reform and opening up has played a key role in promoting Japan-China relations," Nakagawa said.

The Kyodo News department chief, however, admitted that China's rapid economic progress prompted reflection on the current situation of Japan-China relations.

"Japan should view China's rise from an objective perspective, compete fairly and foster win-win cooperative relations with China," Nakagawa said.

"Only in this way could the two Asian powers coexist in harmony," he added.

On China's future development, Nakagawa said that China's development will wield great influence on East Asia, the Asian continent and the world at large.

Optimistic about China's future development, Nakagawa said that he is looking forward to China's role as a responsible power in East Asia and the rest of the world as well.