Japan and China meet with relations in free fall

BEIJING - Japan and China met for talks in Beijing yesterday aimed at halting a free fall in ties after a third weekend of protest in China against what many see as Japan's inability to face up to its wartime past.

But there was little sign of any headway after the violent demonstrations which, along with disputes over territory, a Japanese history textbook and Tokyo's bid for a permanent UN Security Council seat, have dragged relations to their lowest point in decades. Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura met State Counselor Tang Jiaxuan, a former foreign minister who has broad responsibility for diplomatic issues.

Tang, who speaks Japanese and served in the Chinese mission in Japan after the sides established diplomatic ties in 1972, noted Machimura was visiting "under very difficult circumstances in Sino-Japanese relations" but gave no details on the talks.

Thus far, the two sides have appeared to be talking past each other in discussions on a high-stakes economic partnership that brings $178 billion ($NZ251.51 billion) in annual trade and which Tang has described as "at a crossroads."

Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei blamed the troubles on Japan for failing to handle historical issues correctly.

"Since the normalization of relations in 1972, this is the most difficult of the difficult, the most serious difficulty, and it has lasted a relatively long period of time," Wu told a news conference Monday.

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Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing told Machimura on Sunday that China had nothing to apologize for in relation to the protests, staged in at least 10 cities across China from Shanghai in the east and Shenyang in the northeast to Xiamen in the southeast and Guangzhou in the south.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said a possible bilateral summit with Chinese President Hu Jintao on the sidelines of a conference in Indonesia later this week should look forward and move beyond the current "exchange of criticism."

More than 20,000 protesters marched on Japan's consulate in Shanghai Saturday, breaking windows of Japanese restaurants and pelting the diplomatic compound with rocks and bottles.

The demonstrators were angry over a revised Japanese school textbook they say whitewashes atrocities during Japan's 1931-45 invasion and occupation of much of China. Tensions also edged up after Tokyo announced it had begun procedures to allocate rights for test-drilling in a disputed area of the East China Sea.

A Japanese government spokesman said in Tokyo Monday it was regrettable that China had not apologized, that Japan would continue to pursue an apology and that violence should not be condoned under any circumstances.

China has described the protests - which have taken place each weekend in April across China - as spontaneous. But they have been criticized for appearing orchestrated and Japanese newspapers have blamed the Chinese government for not doing enough to stop them.

China has denied deliberately allowing the unrest to spiral, but has shown it could halt street protests easily if it wished.

Even as a violent demonstration raged in Shanghai, authorities headed off protests in Beijing, where thousands of demonstrators had hurled rocks and bottles at the Japanese embassy and ambassador's residence only a week earlier.

Japanese newspaper editorials blamed China for inaction.

"The reason that the anti-Japanese demonstrations have expanded to this point is that the Chinese government is avoiding responsibility for such violent destructive behavior," the Nihon Keizai business daily said.

Some are also growing unhappy with Koizumi. A newspaper poll showed three out of four Japanese voters believed he was not doing enough to improve relations with China and South Korea, which was also occupied by Japan early in the 20th Century.

According to the Mainichi Shimbun poll, 45 per cent of voters said Koizumi should stop visiting Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine, where convicted war criminals are honored along with Japan's 2.5 million war dead. On the other side of the issue, 42 per cent said he should continue to visit the shrine.

- REUTERS