Koizumi should face consequences of shrine visits
Fang ZhouChina Daily  Updated: 2005-12-10 06:45

Who answers for the deterioration in Sino-Japanese relations which could have developed in the opposite direction?

Who answers for the mounting animosity and hostility between the two peoples who discarded past enmity and shook hands in reconciliation in the early 1970s when Japanese leaders sincerely apologized for its past wrongs?

Who answers for the sluggishness in East Asian integration, which could have moved at an otherwise faster pace?

The endless list of similar questions has been asked by us again and again. They are surely to be raised by future generations not only in China and Japan, but also in the region which suffers a lot from a damaged Sino-Japanese relationship.

We have had our explicit answer to these questions. History will also give our descendants an impartial answer to their queries.

The relations between China and Japan have plunged into the lowest-ever level since normalization of diplomatic relations due to Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, where 14 Japanese Class-A war criminals are honoured.

The already-thick ice in bilateral ties is still accumulating without any hope of thawing owing to Japanese politicians' provocative explanations of their acts.

Japan's ties with neighbouring Republic of Korea (ROK) is also deteriorating.

China and the ROK have recently announced there would be no trilateral meeting between their leaders with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi at the sidelines of an upcoming summit between heads of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China, Japan and ROK, in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur.

It would be the first disruption of the trilateral summit, which has been regularly held since 1999 at the sidelines of a series of leaders' meetings hosted by ASEAN.

The meeting between the foreign ministers of the three Asian neighbours was also called off at the occasion.

Not long ago at the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation forum in Busan, ROK, the Japanese prime minister missed a chance for a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, an opportunity to help repair the two neighbours' ties frayed due to Koizumi's Yasukuni complex.

The Chinese Government has made it clear that the visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, a symbol of Japanese militarism, by the country's high-ranking politicians was a key obstacle in Sino-Japanese ties.

By cancelling almost all of its official high-level contacts with the Japanese side, China has demonstrated to Japan that it is serious on this matter.

Regrettably, the country's diplomatic bottom line has been misunderstood by Koizumi as its "diplomatic card" to pressure him to concessions on his "personal affairs."

Koizumi and his likes in his government would be completely wrong if they think their "persistence" will finally make China accustomed to their shrine visits.

As the largest victim of Japan's past aggressive war, it is reasonable for China to demand Japan to thoroughly rethink the Yasukuni Shrine issue.

As two influential powers in East Asia, an intimate relationship between China and Japan will benefit not only the nations themselves, but also the regional integration, an irreversible tendency under the globalization context.

With the two nations at odds, the Asian continent's efforts and ambitions for integration would be greatly discounted.

The fact will always be the fact. History will tell us who is to blame for the enormous losses caused to China, Japan, and even Asia and the world as a whole.

(China Daily 12/10/2005 page4)

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