At the year-end of 2007, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has come to with his "ringing in the spring"trip to warm up ties. It follows the "ice-breaking"visit by then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in October 2006 and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's "ice-thawing"tour of Japan in April of 2007. So Prime Minister Fukuda's ongoing official visit to China to victoriously wind up the year to mark 35th anniversary of normalization of Sino-Japanese ties with a satisfactory full point.
The author of this commentary refers to Prime Minister Fukuda's current visit as a "ringing in the spring"trip with three ensuing reasons. First of all, he said in a recent interview with Chinese media that the spring for Japan-China ties had ushered in and he expected the incoming year to witness the development of bilateral ties by leaps and bounds.
Second, the New Year's Day in Japan corresponds to the traditional Chinese Spring Festival (which falls on February 7, 2008) and the greeting of the Japanese new year means more or less the same as "ringing in the spring”. So Prime Minister Fukuda said this China trip of his has come at the right, opportune time.
Third, the mild, warming-up spring symbolizes very good, promising prospects for the continued improvement of Sino-Japanese ties, which are not only filled with high hopes placed by both China and Japan, but have a splendid reality to bring about through Sino-Japanese joint efforts.
Prime Minister Fukuda's trip evolves plenty of contents from the political, economic and cultural spheres. Apart from a series of talks to be held on major, crucial issues of mutual interest with Chinese leaders, he is expected to deliver a speech at elite Beijing University in western suburbs of the national capital and communicate with students and other Chinese young people at large.
In Tianjin, Fukuda will inspect the Binhai new area, an economic development zone consisting of more than 6,300 companies, including over 70 joint ventures among the 500 top transnational firms. His inspection tour of the Binhai area indicates a posture of the Japanese government to go on supporting China's reform and opening-up and to spur bilateral economic cooperation.
His visit will also take Prime Minister Fukuda to Qufu in east China's Shandong province, and this inspection tour of his perhaps implies a "soul"trip of "tracing to the source"or a profound cultural trip for the people of Japan.
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda can be rated as "an old, seasoned friend of the Chinese people." A milestone peace and friendship treaty between China and Japan was clinched in August 1978, during the tenure of his father, Prime Minister Tadeo Fukuda (1905-1995) from 1976 to 1978. Yasuo Fukuda himself came to China in August 2003 in the capacity of chief Japanese cabinet secretary upon the 25th anniversary of the signing of the China-Japan Peace and Friendship Treaty.
As an incumbent prime minister, he has currently promised not to pay homage to Tokyos' Yasukuni Shrine, which honors 14 convicted top war criminals during World War II, including Hideki Tojo, and but to cope with historical issues modestly (and prudently). Lately, when a Chinese reporter asked him to depict the coming year with one single word at the end of an interview, he readily blurt out without any hesitation the word "truthfulness”, with a particular emphasis to focus on the truthfulness for both good faith and honor.
As for Japan's policies toward China, Fukuda underscores the vital importance of sound Japan-China ties to both Japan and China and their people as well as to Asia and the rest of the world. With a recognition of this basic understanding, the Japanese side is ready to develop further the Japan-China ties facing up to the future on the very basis of mutual understanding and a good faith. For this objective, the Japanese side is willing to promote or boost the dialogues and exchanges of varied realms at different levels centered on exchanges of teenagers and young people.
To be frank, Sino-Japanese relationship is still faced with a host of challenges with some problems left over by history still around. At present, what China concerns itself most is how the Japanese government takes position with respect to the move of Taiwan authority to seek a "referendum"for its UN bid and whether Japan would intervene in Taiwan Strait-relating affairs.
What Japan is fairly concerned about is whether both sides are able to score a breakthrough on the East China Sea issue for the joint exploration and development of resources beneath seabed there and whether China would support its positions concerning some regional and global issues.
Overall, 2008 will be a year with opportunities for the enhancement and development of bilateral ties. China and Japan shall ring in the 30th anniversary of the China-Japan Peace and Friendship Treaty as well as the 10th anniversary of the China-Japan Joint Declaration on Building a Partnership of Friendship and Cooperation for Peace and Development (reached on November 26, 1998.) Moreover, the year 2008 has been designated as the "China and Japan Exchange Year, particularly among their young people and teenagers, and Beijing is due to hold its Olympic Games in August of the year.
On top of these activities, with President Hu Jintao's upcoming visit to Japan to come along in the new year, an upsurge is sure to emerge in the bilateral high-level exchange of visits and meetings of Chinese and Japanese leaders on sidelines of multilateral international events and growing unofficial, people-to-people exchanges between China and Japan. These developments also represent a salient, vital hallmark for the arrival of the spring for Sino-Japanese ties.
In this sense, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's present China trip can be said to be a "foundation-laying"trip as well as a "ringing in the spring"trip. So people of both countries should work together harder still to welcome the new spring for Sino-Japanese friendship.
By Liu Jiangyong, an ace professor at the Institute of International Studies with prestigious Tsinghua University in Beijing, and translated by People's Daily Online
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