Japan-China caught in spotlight at East Asia talks

By Ben Blanchard and George Nishiyama

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – A long-standing feud between Japan
and China caught the spotlight on Tuesday on the eve of the
first East Asian summit, rekindling concerns that the bad blood
could thwart progress of the new grouping.

Japan and China, along with South Korea and 10 Southeast
Asian nations, are due to meet India, Australia and New Zealand
on Wednesday and plot the direction of a grouping that some say
could sow the seeds of a pan-Asian free-trade bloc.

But Asia’s two biggest economies are bickering over their
wartime past and despite hopes from the rest of the region that
the row would not surface in the run-up to the summit, it
stumbled onto center stage after a chance encounter on Monday.

“I cannot understand why we cannot hold a leaders’ meeting
because of a single issue,” Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi told reporters in the Malaysian capital, referring to
the failure here to convene separate bilateral talks with
China.

He also defended his visits to Tokyo’s Yasukuni shrine
which honours some convicted war criminals along with Japan’s
2.5 million war dead — the heart of the dispute between Japan
and China, and also between Japan and South Korea.

“I go there not to glorify the war, but to repent it, to
vow never again to wage war and also pay respects for the war
dead,” Koizumi said. “They will understand as time goes by,” he
added.

The issue surfaced after Koizumi and Chinese Premier Wen
Jiabao had encountered each other, along with South Korean
President Roh Moo-hyun, in a waiting room before lunch, but
what exactly took place became mired in conflicting reports.

Initially, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao
told reporters Wen and Roh had urged Koizumi to “take the right
approach” toward history — a reference to the shrine visits.

The Chinese spokesman’s comment sparked a sharp denial from
Japan, which said Koizumi had never been told this in what it
called a brief but friendly chat.

FRIENDLY OR FRIGID?

On Tuesday, Liu clarified his remarks, saying the call by
Wen and Roh for Tokyo to “take the right approach” had been
made rhetorically, not to Koizumi himself, at a bilateral
meeting of the Chinese and South Korean leaders on Monday.

“I was referring to talks between Premier Wen and the
president of South Korea,” Liu said. “They both discussed the
issue of trilateral cooperation. The two leaders urged the
Japanese leader to take a proper attitude toward historical
problems.”

Frosty relations between Japan and China form a backdrop to
the East Asia summit, which is being convened by the 10-member
Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) as a way of
building more economic bridges with the rest of Asia.

The East Asia grouping represents about half the world’s
population and a fifth of global trade — and excludes the
world’s only superpower, the United States, raising some
concern among Washington’s Asian allies that China could come
to dominate it.

But arguing between Japan and China threatens to weaken the
influence of both over the East Asia summit, said K.S. Nathan
of Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

ASEAN agreed on Monday to put Japan, China and South Korea
alongside it in the driver’s seat of the East Asia summit,
which is to be held annually alongside the ASEAN summit.

But Japan is viewed as keen for the newcomers — India,
Australia and New Zealand — to be more than mere passengers on
the road to an East Asian community. Together with Tokyo, their
involvement could dilute the influence of China.

“To state that ASEAN is in the driver’s seat, the
passengers have a right to know where they are going,” an
Indian diplomat told Reuters on Monday night.

On Tuesday, Japan pledged 7.5 billion yen to support moves
toward regional integration. Coming on top of a $135 million
package announced on Monday to help Asian nations battle bird
flu, Japanese officials said the new funds showed Tokyo’s
commitment and close ties to the rest of the region.

ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos,
Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and
Vietnam.

(Additional reporting by Jalil Hamid and Barani Krishnan)