BEIJING — Signaling a potential thaw in their long-frozen relations, China and Japan
announced Friday that they had effectively agreed to disagree over the
sovereignty of disputed islands in the East China Sea and to gradually
resume diplomatic and security discussions. The agreement could clear
the way for the leaders of the two Asian powers to hold a breakthrough
meeting at a regional conference here next week.
In
similarly worded statements released by both sides, the two countries
said that “different positions exist” over the islands known in China as
the Diaoyu and in Japan as the Senkaku. The statements said that both
sides would establish “crisis management mechanisms” and work to keep
the situation from escalating.
The
agreement is the first public declaration by the two countries that
they are seeking better relations and want to end the prolonged
standoff, which has damaged their economic ties and at times seemed to
bring them close to conflict.
The accord, which had been the subject of negotiations for some time,
was finalized in Beijing on Thursday in a meeting between Japan’s
national security adviser, Shotaro Yachi, and China’s chief diplomat,
State Councilor Yang Jiechi, according to a Japanese official who spoke
on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The agreement came just days before Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
of Japan is to arrive in Beijing for the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation summit meeting, which starts Monday. Expectations have been
high that President Xi Jinping of China would meet with Mr. Abe during
the summit meeting, which will be attended by world leaders including
President Obama.
In
Tokyo, the director of the China division of Japan’s Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, Atsushi Ueno, said there had been no decision about a
meeting between Mr. Abe and Mr. Xi in Beijing. The Chinese state-run
news agency Xinhua said in a commentary, “The Chinese Foreign Ministry
has yet to offer a definite answer on whether or not Xi will converse
with Abe and, if yes, what kind of talks they will have.”
Japan’s
foreign minister, Fumio Kishida, will meet with his Chinese
counterpart, Wang Yi, on Saturday, Mr. Kishida told reporters on Friday
in Beijing, where he was attending a gathering of foreign ministers.
The
statements on Friday announcing the agreement said that Tokyo and
Beijing would gradually resume security and diplomatic dialogue to build
mutual trust.
The
statements said the two sides had agreed to overcome political
obstacles in the spirit of “facing history squarely and looking forward
to the future.” But they made no specific mention of one important issue
grounded in the countries’ painful World War II
history: Mr. Abe’s past visits to the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo, which
honors Japanese war criminals along with the country’s other wartime
dead.
Chinese
officials have bluntly called for Mr. Abe, a conservative, to end his
visits to the shrine, a pledge that would be extremely unpopular with
his core constituency. Mr. Abe has made no such promise, said the
Japanese official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
China
and Japan have been in a Cold War-style standoff since 2012, when the
Japanese government nationalized the disputed islands in the East China
Sea, which Japan controls.
Since
then, China has repeatedly dispatched paramilitary ships to the waters
near the uninhabited islands, though those patrols have been reduced in
the last few months in an apparent attempt to defuse the situation.
China
also declared an air defense zone above the islands, setting off an
international uproar because it demanded that all aircraft entering the
area submit flight plans to China first. The United States, whose most
important ally in Asia is Japan, advised its civilian airlines to
refrain from doing so.
The
Obama administration, concerned about the possibility of an altercation
near the islands that could explode into a full-blown conflict, had
urged Mr. Abe to try to talk to the Chinese. This year, Mr. Obama said
in Tokyo that the United States would stand by its commitment to defend
Japan in the event of a conflict.
China
has long demanded that Japan formally acknowledge the existence of a
dispute over the sovereignty of the islands, and Japan has long refused,
worried that doing so would strengthen Beijing’s position. The careful
wording of Friday’s statements appeared intended to enable each side to
say it had not backed down and to claim a diplomatic victory.
The
tensions between China and Japan have had significant economic
consequences for both sides, including a drop-off of Japanese investment
in China by nearly half in the first six months of this year.
The
negotiations that led to the agreement announced on Friday appeared to
have started in July with the visit to Beijing of a former Japanese
prime minister, Yasuo Fukuda, who met with Mr. Xi.
Thomas
Berger, a professor at Boston University and an expert on Japanese
politics, said that domestic and international concerns had prompted
both countries to agree to disagree and get on with other business.
Mr.
Abe needed to signal to his domestic audience that his “peace through
strength” policy was working, and China, with its economy slowing,
needed better economic relations with Japan, he said.
“The
overwhelming majority of Japanese, especially in the pragmatic wing of
his government, have little desire for an actual conflict with Beijing,”
Professor Berger said. “Instead, what they hope is that through a
policy of strength, they can get China to moderate its policies toward
Japan.”
Mr.
Xi was probably hoping to get credit internationally for moderating his
position, while not making substantive concessions to Japan over the
islands or other issues, Professor Berger said.
source; newyorktimes