Japan will shut off official development assistance (ODA) to China, said Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on November 28 when he was attending the summit between ASEAN and China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) held in Vientiane, Laos.

On Japan's move to stop ODA to China, Wu Dawei, vice foreign minister accompanying Premier Wen Jiabao at the ASEAN meeting in Vientiane, said when China started its reform and opening policy, Japan's loans and assistance played a positive role in promoting China's economic development, and the Chinese government and the Chinese people are grateful for the loans and assistances. He also said Japan's move to cut down ODA to China would not affect the China-Japan relations.

How to look at the matter not only has a bearing on China-Japan relations but also gives expression to the interests of the Chinese nation. How to deal with the issue is connected with the long-term interests of China.

Firstly how to look at ending the aid to China in the near future? It is no doubt that the right-wing forces in Japan advocate ending the aid to China as early as possible. Does advocating stopping the aid to China, in turn, mean those belonging to the right-wing forces politically? It is obvious that the conclusion cannot be made so simply. Objectively there has not always been Japanese aid to China and the assistance will not continue forever. Japan started to provide the development assistance to China at the initial stage of China's reforms and opening policy when China needed the support. Japan's funds played a great role in promoting China's economic development. Now China's economy has taken off. It is normal for Japan to end ODA to China under this circumstance. We should deal with it calmly.

Secondly how to determine the nature of ODA? Some believe ODA has save a batch of the enterprises on the verge of closedown in Japan from bankruptcy. So Japan also had interests of its own when offered ODA. There is a certain reason for saying so. But there contains a tendency behind the saying. It means feeling no gratefulness. It should not be like that. Actually a batch of Japanese enterprises had taken many contracts out of ODA program. But it must be noticed that it was the original aim of ODA for Japan to assist China instead of taking care of Japanese enterprises. It is normal for Japanese enterprises to get orders from their government assistance to foreign countries.

Thirdly and also the most importantly: what attitude should we have when Japan is ready to end its aid to China? The writer thinks it must be very careful when saying something about the issue. Otherwise, an evil influence may be made in the normal development of Sino-Japanese relations. Because of this, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said China could do without Japanese assistance when he made comments on the Japanese end of its aid to China. He also stressed that the Chinese people has built their own country by relying on their own strength, wisdom, determination and self-confidence. On November 26, Koizumi also stressed at the Japanese Senate that Japan will cooperate with (China) in a broad area and do not allow any individual issue to hamper the development of the overall situation.

Without question, the right-wing forces in Japan are getting stronger recently. Japanese announcing the end of its aid to China is linked with the factor of right-wing forces. But even so we cannot whip up national sentiments. After all the ODA program has played a great role in promoting China's economic development. Japan has the right reason to choose when it will end the aid program. For us, Japanese friendly acts must be distinguished from the reactionary actions of the right-wing forces in Japan.

By People's Daily Online