By Yang Yi (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-11-27 07:15

A People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy ship is scheduled to arrive in Japan tomorrow. It will be the first Chinese naval vessel to pay a port call to the neighboring country in modern history. China and Japan are close neighbors separated only by a strip of water and the two nations have important geo-political and geo-economic interests in Northeast Asia and the West Pacific region. The China-Japan relationship affects peace, stability and prosperity in Northeast Asia, Asia and even the world.

Last year, top leaders of the two countries put their foresight into action when they reached consensus on pushing for a strategic relationship of mutual benefit between them and marked out a clear direction for the development of bilateral ties. And the two sides began proactive interaction after that.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to Japan helped thaw the icy bilateral ties like a warm spring breeze, while State Councilor and Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan's Japan trip opened the door to normal exchanges between the two nations' armed forces. The port call by a PLA Navy ship represents an important chapter in military exchanges between the two countries. It will have a profound and far-reaching impact on China-Japan relations.

The officers and soldiers of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces will see the true colors of the PLA Navy and learn that China is no longer the "sick man of East Asia" or a menacing tool of "gunship diplomacy", but a peacefully developing, civilized and powerful armed force.

Needless to say, the bilateral ties between China and Japan are faced with many challenges, as there are some structural differences between them that are not easy to resolve, including the relationship between their uncertain military ties. Military relationships are the most sensitive part of any bilateral ties and a key weathervane for international relations. It can be the biggest obstacle blocking the development of bilateral ties as well as a powerful "booster" propelling the development of bilateral relations forward.

Currently, China and Japan find strategic mutual confidence with regard to the West Pacific area lacking between them. This is not only holding back the development of their strategic, mutually beneficial relations but also likely to cause suspicions, misjudgments and even crisis and confrontation. Therefore, under the overall premise of advancing their strategic relationship of mutual benefit, it is now time the two countries started considering the construction of a cooperative relationship between the two armed forces in military security on the high seas.

It is bound to be an arduous and time-consuming task. It simply cannot be accomplished in one leap. It has to be pursued one step at a time and the first being the fundamental principle of strategic mutual benefit.

In summary, both China and Japan must follow the path of peaceful development, stick to a defensive military strategy, maintain the right strategic position regarding each other, recognize the justified political demands and legitimate interests of the other side, proactively cooperate under bilateral and multilateral mechanisms and pursue win-win results.

At the same time, neither nation should challenge the other's core national interests, interfere in the other's internal affairs, voluntarily regard the other side as the imagined enemy, use or threaten to use military force to solve their disputes or join any political and military alliance aimed at the other side.

China is committed to the path of peaceful development and advocates and pushes for the construction of a harmonious world, which shows the nation's domestic and foreign policies are a harmonious combination both in strategic thinking and philosophy. While quickening its military modernization pace, China is also contributing to world peace, stability and prosperity, and forever committed to a defensive military strategy.

Japan should recognize China's legitimate rights, refrain from hyping the "China threat theory" by fussing over China's defense capabilities and forget about checking and containing China by developing bilateral and multilateral military alliances with like-minded parties.

Japan played an important role in regional and global affairs when it followed the pacifist Constitution and the road of economic development and steered clear of the old militarist path in the post-war era. Since the end of the Cold War and especially in recent years, Japan, hungry for international recognition and matching status, has been chasing after the goal of becoming a political and military major power in the name of being a "normal nation" again. Whether Japan will win complete trust from Asian nations or the whole world for that matter depends on its resolve to follow the road of peace forever.

Right now, China and Japan are looking at a critical window of opportunity for developing their bilateral ties. The two nations should seize the opportunity created by the port call in Japan by a PLA Navy destroyer and any other opportunity for conducting all-round positive interaction between them in every aspect of their bilateral ties.

The two countries should spare no effort in pushing for interaction and cooperation between their armed forces in the strategic interests of both nations and steadily advance their cooperation over maritime security as their military mutual confidence builds up.

They should begin by strengthening cooperation on handling non-traditional security threats, increase mutual understanding, reduce mutual suspicions and gradually expand the scope and depth of their cooperation when the time is right to do so. As long as the two countries have political sincerity and a practical, workable set of measures ready, the steady development of their overall strategic relationship of mutual benefit is guaranteed to go forward.

The author, a rear admiral, is an expert with the PLA University of National Defense

(China Daily 11/27/2007 page10)