In mid-August,
some Chinese government officials met to discuss security for the 70th
anniversary ceremony. They later briefed embassy officials of countries whose
head of state may attend the event. Japanese embassy officials were not invited
to the briefing.
On the night of Sept. 3,
Masato Kitera, Japan's ambassador to China, was glued to a TV screen. He
was watching a stage performance at the evening gala that concluded the
anniversary activities. Before the eyes of the leaders from various countries,
a number of Chinese female performers covered in blood rose up with a look of
resentment on their faces. It was a reminder of what China calls the Nanking
Massacre. The numeral "300,000" emerged behind these performers,
indicating the number of victims the Chinese government says were killed.
None of the delegates had
known what to expect. If Abe had paid a visit, he would have witnessed the
performance. The unexpected arrangement took the Japanese embassy staff by
surprise; some were relieved that Abe decided not to go to Beijing for the
anniversary events.
China will continue to use the
history issue as a bargaining chip against Japan. It is also using territorial
issues in much the same manner. Chinese vessels continue to violate Japan's
territorial waters in the East China Sea near the Senkaku Islands, also
claimed by China.
China has also recently
detained a few Japanese men, alleging they are spies.
All these moves are aimed at
pressuring Japan.
In late September, Abe and Xi
attended a U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York but failed to even have a
chat before leaving the U.S.
For his part, Xi is trying to
seek cooperative ties with Japan while fending off pressure from anti-Japan
forces inside the party. It is a delicate balancing act.
Xi has been seeking to further
consolidate his power within the party, but there is only so much he can do to
keep the party's anti-Japan forces in check.
This summer, former Chinese
President Jiang Zemin and other party elders repeatedly received several
pages-long documents. These papers were sent by Xi as part of his efforts to
gain the elders' stamp of approval.
The papers included the text
of a speech Xi was to deliver on Sept. 3 in Beijing's Tiananmen Square before a
military parade marking China's victory in its resistance war against Japanese
aggression.
The speech concluded with, "Justice
will prevail! Peace will prevail! The people will prevail!"
He mentioned Japanese
militarism twice in the speech, signaling that Beijing distinguishes between
today's government and that of wartime Japan.
"The speech included
scathing criticism of Japan at one point," a party official familiar the
matter said. "But that was deleted after a complicated process of internal
coordination." In fact, it was Xi who made that decision.
Similarly, Beijing reacted in
a low-key way to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's 70th anniversary
statement on Aug. 14. While Chinese media lashed out at Abe for not offering a
direct apology, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs refrained from explicitly
assessing the statement.
This restrained reaction
seemed to reflect Xi's intentions to build and keep better relations with
Japan. There were even growing expectations that Abe would visit China in
September.
That was not to be. What is
more, top party officials in China are said to be dissatisfied with what Abe
said in his statement; they just don't want to air their grievances publicly.
Nikkei News
No comments:
Post a Comment