Japan Hardens Stance Against China
Top Japanese government officials seem to be taking an increasingly harder line in their recent disputes with China over territorial rights and visits to the Yasukuni Shrine.
On a Sunday TV talk show, Foreign Minister Taro Aso said that China is a military threat due to the rapid growth and lack of transparency in their military spending. This is in line with Japan’s Defense Agency, which considers the military expansion of china a top security concern.
On the same show, Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe rejected the suggestion by China that talks between the two nations can resume if Japan Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi would pledge to stop visiting the Yasukuni Shrine.
Chinese President Hu Jintao offered Friday to hold talks with Koizumi if he stops his visits to the shrine, which honors 2.5 million war dead, including convicted Class-A war criminals. China has refused top-level talks since Koizumi last visited the shrine in October 2005.
But Abe rejected the offer Sunday, saying, “it is wrong for China to refuse talks just over one problem.”
“It’s China that needs to take another step forward,” he said, adding how Japan commemorated its war dead is an internal affair.
When Abe was asked whether he would continue visiting Yasukuni if he becomes prime minister of Japan (as he is expected to do), he replied:
I would like to continue putting my hands together for those who died for our nation and pray for their souls.
These new developments are expected to worsen relations between the two Asian countries even further.
that’s good! we will see how good your navy is and your airforce when facing an enemy who has better weapons. There will be a rout.
Ah yanks will come to your rescue! Sure sure after push comes shove and yanks will bug out immediately! C’mon do you really think they will defend you? Even if they did we will still win.
we don’t recognize any so called economic zone, I believe in freedom of navigation, that 2 miles or 3 km strip off your coast that’s yours. the seas are free to navigate. It surely is the shortest way to get into the pacific ocean for patrol.
April 4th, 2006 at 12:06 am
Silly pretend chinese person. When the day comes that “Honda” corp starts building assault tanks and the SDF force gets an overhaul then china will be sh!tt!ng industrial strength pale white bricks. But by all means China, keep up the threatening rhetoric, in the end it will make damn fine CNN watching.
April 4th, 2006 at 1:53 am^- Is there some way to edit out really stupid comments?
Who are you an who are they and why are you going on a Pacific Ocean patrol?
I saw a report on the news tonight about the 50 year anniversary of the first post war ping pong competition in China where a Japanese player took part. This led to a softening of post war tensions and “Ping Pong Diplomacy”. They got all the competitors together, everyone in their 60s and 70s, on a talk show in China. They also had the ping pong phenom Ai-chan on the show too. The 16 year old prodigy has joined the Super League in China and was discussing the game and matters in fluent Chinese. The message was that ping pong is going places and doing things that politics can’t go or just won’t.
Japanese and Chinese leaders have got to get their heads out of their a$$es and start making positive gestures to each other. China making Japan out to be the evil among evils in its propoganda is Mao Tse-Tung Communism old. On the other hand Japan’s “other-countries-have-no-say-in-our-internal-
affairs” is so Edo Jidai. Wake up, its a big world, if something you are doing is bothering your neighbor try to find the common ground and settle the issue amicably.
Business, culture, academics, even Ping Pong are all way ahead of politics in China-Korea-Japan issues. When will politicians wake up?
April 4th, 2006 at 2:09 amBut if China continues to Japan bash their people will be distracted from their own country’s problems. Makes sense to me, doesn’t mean its right but you can see how this works out for them.
April 4th, 2006 at 2:15 amWell, since the rest of the world seems to ignore the hypocrisy and double standards committed by the government of china in regards to its constant vitriol against japan and its citizens, is it any surprise that japanese officials think enough is enough? Why should any nation have to endure constant antagonism and hostility and be expected to just sit back and take it?
And whenever japan rightly expresses its own righteousness and indignation, people immediately scream that it’s a revival of militarism.
April 4th, 2006 at 2:29 amIs there some way to edit out really stupid comments?
Actually. . . I deleted about 15 comments from “yeah me” that were much worse than this one. I let this one stand because I just got tired of deleting!
April 4th, 2006 at 2:44 amWhy should any nation have to endure constant antagonism and hostility and be expected to just sit back and take it?
–curiousdude
good point. other nations like Iran and North Korea shouldn’t have to endure constant antagonism either, and they shouldn’t be expected to just sit back and take it, right. excellent point, again.
japan shouldn’t sit back and take anything, either. they should act strongly and stubbornly and defiant in the face of aggressors just as the above mentioned countries are doing.
April 4th, 2006 at 4:32 am“But if China continues to Japan bash their people will be distracted from their own country’s problems.”
Thats already happened. They recognized the dangers of information when they heard about the Japanese text books, but the fact that their government views them as children who need AOL child locks just flew right past them.
April 4th, 2006 at 4:51 am“good point. other nations like Iran and North Korea shouldn’t have to endure constant antagonism either, and they shouldn’t be expected to just sit back and take it, right. excellent point, again.”
You’re the moron who likes to play the Holocaust/Hitler/Nazi card, aren’t you?
April 4th, 2006 at 6:34 am“Why should any nation have to endure constant antagonism and hostility and be expected to just sit back and take it?”
Some other nations are full of crybabies, that’s why. Anyone who takes China’s whining seriously has absolutely no perspective.
What difference does it make if this ruins “relations” between the two countries? It’s China’s own fault if they’re stupid enough to start any real conflict over this. As long as they can make money off of each other, this Yasukuni business is meaningless.
April 4th, 2006 at 6:46 amWell if you limit the discussion to this particular issue (the shrine) it’s apparent who the lugheads are, especially given the reconcilliatory hints Hu seems to be dropping. It’s a shame for all the good faith people are willing to show on both sides there’s always rabid nationalistic nutjobs with an inferiority complex in the crowd (like Shinzo Abe or our good pal yeah me) to push the whole region to ruin.
You know something yeah me, you and Shinzo Abe have much more in common with each other than you do with most of your countrymen. Go and have a fistfight or something and leave everybody else be.
April 4th, 2006 at 7:08 amnagoya_canuck said it best. all sides should stop the whining and look forward to a brighter future. for the comments by the first two, war is not pretty. coming from someone who saw the shiza first hand, you guys have no right saying crap bout weapons, and who will win. war is not fought by weapons, and missles. it’s fought by people like you and i. so please shut up, since i don’t think either of you have the cajones to actually take part if war happens.. oh yeah, US ARMY will not run or hide from anyone. in closing, stop advocating hatred, and try to be civilized. oh yeah, i don’t support any side. i think korea, japan, and china’s politicians should be hanged.
April 4th, 2006 at 10:03 amChina will win. Japan is over with.
April 4th, 2006 at 11:41 amWin what?
April 4th, 2006 at 11:52 amYea, exactly, win what? I didn’t realize there was a baseball game still going on. Who let the nationalists in?
April 4th, 2006 at 12:18 pmChina will win world domination. militarily, commerically, financially, everything. The coming Chinese tide is heading everyone’s way. That’s what.
I am not saying I long for this, or I even think it is a good thing. I do not. I loathe communist China. But they are gaining fast, and they got the guts, and the nuts ( I mean the nutty nationalists ).
I pray this will not come to pass. But reading the newspapers every day, and these posts above, the tide is coming in, and the commies are going to take over soon.
So I guess all i was saying, is, get ready. and pray it doesn’t happen.
April 4th, 2006 at 1:26 pmHave you ever heard of the book “Japan as #1″?
It was written when everyone in the world was convinced that Japan would be all of the things you predict for China. It was supposed to have happened by the turn of the century (2000).
Time will tell, of course, but extrapolation is rarely a good predictor of what it to come.
April 4th, 2006 at 1:51 pmFunny that some think I am pretend Chinese.
I am sick of these bribed bastards taking a few yens in, they do not represent the Chinese people, if you think that Chinese youth are different than visit BBS board and hear what they have to say.
Something else: Diaoyu is Chinese.
April 5th, 2006 at 12:04 amdear diamond back, yes, time will tell. I might be wrong, i often am,:grin:
April 5th, 2006 at 12:05 am“what patrols” : in pacific ocean, that’s what they are for to patrol. the subs.
Diaoyu was and is Chinese, I don’t understand how there could be a misunderstanding about this, but they really are, always have been.
bribed bastards or called commies by you guys do not have a hoot to say about anything.
they even do not represent the people, the people who say that we crush all those who oppose China are the real representatives of the country.
Blood and iron, the military should take over, disputes should be settled with military force.
April 5th, 2006 at 12:20 amAll disputes will be over with, screw trade.
Yeah the landwind was tested by official german test insitute TUV and of course it is safe, german adac test is like you doing some crash test in your garage, it has no relevance, but they pretend it was a official test, let’s be honest, safety is not the real concern, it doesn’t matter in what car in are driving, but if you have a collision you better be in a Landwind than let’s say a peugot 307 or a fiat or a honda civic. these kind of cars like landwind or other comparable models are more dangerous for the cars they collide with. the adac people are idiots.
April 5th, 2006 at 12:34 amI mean besides that the adac people are concerned about the Chinese prices of cars, they want to keep competitors out, that’s obvious.
Besides that who wants to collide in a car, everything above 60km/h. is dangerous, no matter what kind of car you drive, only stupid idiots trust on the so called safety features of cars.
There are trillion models that are more unsafe than landwind, but of course they don’t mention this. these stupid idiots think that a car is something special, like they europeans are the only ones that can build cars.
I mean building modern cars is a piece of cake for China, it is really no challenge at all, it only expose the euroepans and their overpriced garbage. China build much more complicated stuff than stupid cars: chassis with engine, with steel sheets wrapped around it, that’s a car.
April 5th, 2006 at 12:44 amIt’s laughable when you read european carmagazines and their pretences. It is what it is: everybody can drive cars so it is low tech.
Japundit.com comment section, now with number A-1 extra crunchy troll time action! Hawaaa!
April 5th, 2006 at 1:39 amOf course China can build cars! All it takes is copy somebody else’s from ten years ago and pretend you’re technologically advanced. Haha.
You know there is a country where the military has taken over, you share a border with it - why don’t you go there and enjoy your paradise? And tell Kim we said hi!
April 5th, 2006 at 5:05 amChina has been building cars for years. However, maybe the China boosters here can tell me why virtually every Chinese person who can would rather have a foreign car than a Chinese car. The same goes for many products there. Why would Chinese pay 10 times the price for Italian furniture rather than buy the local (identical) knock off?
It’s not just the technology, but the attitude. And the attitude cannot improve without a little humility. Some Chinese understand this, but then they have to work in a culture that only wants the quick and easy money.
April 5th, 2006 at 9:49 amIsn’t it strange that China didn’t make a fuss about Yasukuni until Asahi Shimbun started the anti-Yasukuni campaign in 1985? When Dalai Lama XIV visited Yasukuni in 1980, they didn’t even say anything about it(Foreign VIP Visitation Record of Yasukuni Shrine http://www.tetsusenkai.net/official/yasukuni/english/record.html). I think it’s obvious that this issue is only kept alive by the Chinese government for political purposes.
April 5th, 2006 at 7:15 pmAll stupid idiots: those who buy foreign cars too.
Why would you want to pay 10X more if you can have the same for half the money. I don’t give a hoot about brands, 5 dollar t-shirt then you put armani on it then the t-shirt is 50 dollars! I don’t give a hoot about brands.
Only the extremely rich in China are spending their money to foreign brands to show off.
It has nothing to do with quality.
These stupid idiots would pay 200 dollars for a small can of caviar, not knowing how real caviar tastes, they eat spoiled shit and they don’t even know it. That’s for the people who care about brands.
My consideration is does it perform well, I don’t give a hoot where it comes from.
you think I care about brands assembled by people whose wage is 10X more than a Chinese worker who has the same skill level or even higher who earns 10X less. The materials are all the same. Do you really think because the wrapped steel sheets around the chassis justify a higher price for the car? That’s all the difference, how the steel sheets are shaped around the chassis.
Even Helmut Kohl only visited the SS cementary to pay his honours to the waffen SS soldiers after his retirement as premier of west germany.
April 5th, 2006 at 11:59 pm“yeah me”,
1st of all please communicate like a non-obssessive adult.
you sound like an old person who thinks everything from the 1950s is better. You don’t realize that its your pride and not logic talking.
China is overated. Their estimated capabilities are exxagerated and they lack the experience to back them up. Their military is a good example, its all quantity over quality. That works well in land rushes against a WWII enemy but at sea and in the air Japan would put them in their place. Hell, Japan is one of the best defended places on the planet, its an island defended by the two best navies in the world.
China’s real stregth is its huge population which allows for rapid growth but the political and economic management of the country is poor. Once that growth levels off and stagnates China’s efficiency will become more clear and its backwards domestic policy will become more of a problem.
April 6th, 2006 at 5:11 amAre you sure you’re Chinese and not a Scotsman?
April 6th, 2006 at 7:28 amIsn’t it strange that China didn’t make a fuss about Yasukuni until Asahi Shimbun started the anti-Yasukuni campaign in 1985? When Dalai Lama XIV visited Yasukuni in 1980, they didn’t even say anything about it(Foreign VIP Visitation Record of Yasukuni Shrine http://www.tetsusenkai.net/official/yasukuni/english/record.html). I think it’s obvious that this issue is only kept alive by the Chinese government for political purposes.
Sorry, but that is blantantly untrue. There have been official protests against Yasukuni since the inclusion of the war criminals.
April 7th, 2006 at 1:16 amPlunge, you are just wrong. Even after the fact that war criminals were enshrined at the shrine was made known in 1979, the Chinese government did not protest publicly when prime ministers Ohira and Suzuki visited the shrine. It was after Asahi Shimbun started criticising Prime Minister Nakasone Yasuhiro’s “official visit” to the shrine in 1985 that China began lodging protests to such visits. In yielding to Beijing’s protest, Nakasone discontinued his visits to the shrine in the following year. The action handed China a diplomatic bargaining chip that it has continued to exploit.
April 7th, 2006 at 3:17 pmYEAH ME first off, i’m all for national, racial, …whatever the heck you want, pride, but if the day comes, where china is gonna rule the world, i’mma re-up in the US ARMY!!!! i really hope to see yeah me on the battlefield, since i will be looking for his racist, brainwashed, and moronic ….butt.
why i won’t ever buy chinese cars.
1- korean cars are just as cheap, and have a ten year warranty.
2- japanese cars rarely need a warranty, since they don’t break down.
3- you get what you pay for. there’s a reason why you pay extra for a brand name. it’s got credibility.
4- to see them go bankrupt, and laugh at yeah me.
5- chinese put newspaper in cigarettes… if they can’t do that right, what the heck makes you think they won’t cut corners on cars.
6- except for the board commitee, none of the actual people doing hard labor will make any money. i hate fat cat ceos’ that stuff only their pockets.
not to seem obsessive, but one more car comment. while excessive car speeds are dangerous, and materials might be the same, there is a reason most people don’t die; technology. with such innovations like seat belts, doors that won’t fall off, tires that’ll stay on, and hoods that won’t fly off, cars are safer. ok? you close-minded …. sigh~
situations are bad enough as is right now between the three countries. don’t make it worse… please. i know it’s easy for a person to sit behind a computer screen, and type hateful words, and rhetoric, expecting no backlash, but be a man.
talking of spoiled caviar, you probably eat rotten tofu. see? you can’t say anything is better than the other, ok? i know i probably hurt your feelings, (maybe not, since you can’t speak english that well), but think of this as a reminder. it sucks to be made fun of.
now… back to being a nice guy. i’m sorry… admin i’m sorry, people reading this i’m sorry, just infuriates me when people act ignorant. whew~ GO ASIA!!!
April 8th, 2006 at 10:50 pm