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By Jin Xide (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-12-27 07:21

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda arrives in Beijing today for a four-day official visit to China. What is the significance of this visit? And how are the China-Japan relationship prospects looking?

First of all, Fukuda's visit symbolizes new government diplomacy between the two countries.

Reciprocal visits between the nations' leaders resumed after five-and-a-half years when then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe paid his "ice-breaking" visit to China in October 2006. Six months later, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's "ice-thawing" trip to Japan in April this year further warmed the bilateral ties. And a new opportunity emerged in September for the further development of diplomacy between China and Japan as Yasuo Fukuda became prime minister. The China-Japan relationship and diplomacy between the two remains stable.

Sino-Japanese relations have entered a period of steady growth after a series of jolts and readjustments. The resumption of diplomacy between the top leaders serves as an important indicator. Reciprocal visits between state leaders of the two countries are becoming frequent, and their talks are covering more topics.

It has been reported that Fukuda will deliver a speech and exchange views with Peking University students. He will also visit Tianjin's economic development zone and the birthplace of Confucius in Shandong. All this shows diplomacy between China and Japan is developing to a new phase of learning about each other's real situation and directly speaking to the people of each other's country.

Also, Fukuda's China visit represents a new opportunity for the China-Japan "relationship of strategic mutual benefit".

In the area of diplomatic talks, the two sides have kept their foreign minister-level dialogue and department chief-level talks on the East China Sea issue alive. In the area of exchanges between the two armed forces, the Chinese navy's missile destroyer Shenzhen made an official four-day port call to Japan beginning on November 28 at the invitation of the Japanese.

In the area of economic cooperation, the first China-Japan High-Level Economic Dialogue was held on December 1 in Beijing. And in the area of non-government exchanges, the two countries have successfully wrapped up a two-way exchange program. Japanese citizens visiting China in the first 10 months of this year increased by 7.9 percent, compared to the same period last year, while Chinese citizens visiting Japan surged by 14.8 percent. The joint research in bilateral history is making progress while the two peoples' feelings toward each other continues to improve, indicating Sino-Japanese exchanges at various levels are growing.

Such is the backdrop against which Fukuda is visiting China. The leaders of both countries will assess the general wellbeing of bilateral ties in diplomatic, military and non-government exchanges in a bid to reach new consensus on the further enhancement of dialogue and cooperation. Their talks will focus on issues regarding overall development and direction, while relevant agencies of the two governments will discuss specific issues regarding their respective jurisdictions.

How should the two sides deepen their strategic dialogue? How should they achieve a breakthrough on the East China Sea issue? When will a Japanese navy ship make a reciprocal port call to China? What progress do the two countries expect their high-level economic talks to achieve? And how should their non-government exchanges take a new leap forward? The success of reciprocal visits and talks on these topics between the nations' leaders will remove the obstacles blocking exchanges in all areas. And the progress in the various exchanges will in turn make more room for reciprocal visits by leaders of the two countries.

During his meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura on December 3, Chinese President Hu Jintao noted that China-Japan relations are currently showing positive development and the two sides should cherish this and seize the opportunity to do more according to the principles and spirit of the three political documents signed between the two sides.

It is an opportune time for the China-Japan relationship to progress, but it is also faced with a host of challenges as well. As far as the two nations' quest for strategic reconciliation and cooperation is concerned, the key lies in removing the strategic sentimental and ideological divide rather than tweaking at the contradictions. Can China or Japan accept the other's rise? And can they build up a relationship of strategic cooperation as they rise simultaneously? These are two important questions the two nations have to answer as soon as possible.

Japan's elites have been in extensive discussions about "China's rise" in recent years and they find themselves shifting slowly from denial to acceptance. Today, faced with China's growing international influence, they are offering all kinds of solutions, with many of them calling for wrapping China in an ideological blanket of "value diplomacy".

Some of the hawkish politicians in Japan have expressed opposition to Fukuda's abandonment of the "value diplomacy", while some of the enlightened have declared Japan "must gear its foreign affairs on Japan-US ties, but also maintain good relations with other Asian nations" and "Japan should share the chairmanship of East Asia with China".

Next year China and Japan will mark the 30th anniversary of their peace and friendship treaty and President Hu will visit Japan. It will be the first by China's head of state in 10 years. The next round of reciprocal visits between state leaders is expected to further steer Sino-Japanese relations toward strategic reconciliation and cooperation.

The author is a researcher with the Institute of Japanese Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

(China Daily 12/27/2007 page10)