China-Japan relations evolve
▶ End of official assistance sparks reflections on ties
Two days before Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to Beijing, Japan decided to discontinue its 40-year Official Development Assistance (ODA) to China, which started with the signing of the ChinaJapan Treaty of Peace and Friendship in 1979.
Abe’s visit from October 25 to 27 is the first official trip by a Japanese prime minister in seven years.
Japan’s move on the 40th anniversary of the treaty sparked a new wave of discussion on China-Japan relations on and offline amid historical grievances and China’s rise in the region.
Netizens were divided in their opinion on Japan’s role in the history of Chinese reform and opening-up.
Some believed China deserved the assistance as Japan was exempted from paying war reparations.
“The assistance was a loan, which means China will repay the principal plus interest, not to mention the amount was dwarfed by the reparations they should have paid,” posted Weibo user Shangcangbaoyou.
Some expressed gratitude, noting that Japan could have offered zero to China and such a position would be justified by international law.
“People should not simply cast their resentment of Japan in history onto the country of today and totally ignore the assistance,” another Weibo user Lu Haoshan posted.
On the other side of the sea, “Japanese people are closely linked to the issue with mixed feelings since ODA money comes from taxation,” Tojiro Kataya, a Japanese student who majored in East Asia regional studies at Duke University in the US told the Global Times on Monday.
Kataya identified a split in Japanese society on the issue.
“The generation of my grandparents are more likely to feel guilty about the war, but young people who are better heard online show less support for the assistance,” he said.
The majority of people born after the 1980s has little concept of the war, he noted.
“Young people have a mind-set of commercial exchange that Japan pays ODA for China’s friendship and gratitude,” Kataya said.
Wang Shaopu, director of the Center of Japanese Studies at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, told the Global Times on Monday that Japan offered assistance to China “in an effort to improve bilateral relationship and regional stability.”
During the last 40 years, Japan has provided China with low-interest loans, free aid and technical cooperation opportunities totaling $32.6 billion for infrastructure, humanitarian support and environmental protection, according to statistics from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan.
The low-interest loans helped build the international airports in Beijing and Shanghai and accounted for more than 90 percent of all assistance, based on a calculation of the statistics by the ministry.
The cheap loans also electrified 5,200 kilometers of railway.
Free aid without repayment obligation was concentrated on hospitals, schools, drinking water systems and other projects to improve ordinary people’s well-being.
“China was destitute at that moment and Japan offered timely help including critical infrastructure projects and factories like Shanghai Baosteel Group Corporation,” Wang said.
“On the other hand, Japan stimulated its own economy by opening up the Chinese market. Its aid projects improved its image with recipients.”
Standpoint of cooperation
Japanese assistance did not significantly improve China-Japan relations, marred by deep historic scars and territorial disputes.
The loan part of the assistance project was terminated in 2008, not long before China overtook Japan as the world’s second largest economy.
Abe said during his visit that he hopes the two sides will open up a new era of bilateral ties featuring a shift “from competition to coordination.”
China and Japan share a standpoint of cooperation and development amid US unilateralism, Wang noted, “therefore the warming of bilateral relations will stay for a while.”
More than 50 business deals worth more than $18 billion were signed during Abe’s visit at the China-Japan Third-Market Cooperation Forum in Beijing, which “signaled Japan’s support for the Belt and Road initiative, a U-turn from 2013 when China first proposed it,” Wang said.
Tourism exchanges
Mutual trust is built on mutual understanding among common people, possible through “geographical proximity and the shared culture of the two sides,” Wang said.
Such communication should not be neglected, Wang said, stressing that non-official ties between China and Japan have played an important role in maintaining peace and stability, especially during friction.
Chinese tourist visits to Japan are expected to exceed 10 million in 2018, up 36 percent year-on-year, Wei Jianguo, deputy director of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges and former vice commerce minister, told the Global Times on October 24.
Kataya said he too hoped bilateral relations could stay stable.
Speaking fluent Putonghua, Kataya attended a high school in China before going back to Japan for undergraduate studies. “But it is difficult, if ever possible for Japanese who grew up with media reports of China’s anti-Japanese protests, to be fond of China,” he said.