MCLC: Xi Jinping takes conciliatory tone

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: Xi Jinping takes conciliatory tone
***********************************************************

Source: NYT (1/25/13):
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/26/world/asia/chinese-leader-eases-tone-in-m
eeting-with-japan-envoy.html

Chinese Leader Takes Conciliatory Tone in Meeting With Japanese Lawmaker
By JANE PERLEZ 

BEIJING — China’s new leader, Xi Jinping, offered Japan a conciliatory
tone during a meeting with a senior Japanese politician on Friday in what
appeared to be an effort to reduce the escalating tensions between the
countries over islands in the East China Sea.

“The Chinese government remains committed to China-Japan relations,” Mr.
Xi told the Japanese lawmaker, Natsuo Yamaguchi, in some of his first
remarks on foreign policy since becoming general secretary of the
Communist Party, according to an account provided by China’s Foreign
Ministry.

Mr. Xi urged both sides to “look at the larger picture” and “push
relations forward,” the Foreign Ministry said, language markedly more
restrained than the combative statements from military officials and
state-run news media since the dispute over the islands erupted last year.

The encounter between Mr. Xi and Mr. Yamaguchi, in the Great Hall of the
People, came after China and Japan began sending surveillance ships to the
East China Sea on an almost daily basis over the last several months.
Recently, both sides scrambled fighter jets in what Washington considers a
dangerous escalation of the dispute over the islands, known as the Diaoyu
in China and the Senkaku in Japan.

The conciliatory tone on between China and Japan did not necessarily
presage an immediate thaw in the dispute.

Instead, the new tone appeared to comport with recent remarks by Chinese
diplomats that the dispute needed to be managed, a stance that contrasts
with the barrage of belligerent statements against Japan by Chinese
military experts and the state-run news media.

In their meeting on Friday, Mr. Yamaguchi, the head of the junior party in
Japan’s new coalition government, delivered a letter to Mr. Xi from
Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, that urged high-level talks between
Tokyo and Beijing, the Japanese news media reported.

In a statement after meeting Mr. Xi, Mr. Yamaguchi also expressed
moderation. “We would like to improve our future relations,” he said. “We
believe Mr. Xi’s intent to seriously consider high-level talks reflects
his desire for improved relations.”

The New Komeito Party, led by Mr. Yamaguchi, has had longstanding ties
with China, and is generally looked upon favorably by Beijing. In the
Japanese political context, the party is considered pro-China. Its
electoral base comes from a Buddhist organization.

Mounting nationalism in both countries has fanned the tensions, which in
part reflect the long history of conflict between China and Japan and
bitter memories from World War II, when Japan occupied China.

The Obama administration, worried about a collision in the sea or in the
air that could lead to confrontation, has asked both sides to cool the
situation.

At the same time, Washington has made it clear that the mutual defense
treaty between Japan and the United States covers an attack on the
islands, which could lead to American military involvement.

Mr. Xi, in a striking backward glance to the opening of diplomatic
relations between China and Japan in 1972, said, “Like the older
generation of leaders, we should show a sense of national and historical
responsibility and political wisdom, overcome the difficulties in
bilateral relations and push relations forward.”

Mr. Xi was clearly referring to the milestone in Chinese-Japanese
relations when Prime Minister Zhou Enlai of China, after talks with his
Japanese counterpart, Kakuei Tanaka, said the two countries should shelve
the dispute on the islands and resolved it at another time. Japan, which
originally took control of the uninhabited islands near the end of the
19th century, has said it never agreed to Mr. Zhou’s proposal.

Indeed, Japan contends that there is no need for negotiations over the
sovereignty of the uninhabited islands because the islands belong to
Japan. The islands were returned to Japan by the United States in 1972 as
part of the agreement that transferred Okinawa to Japan from American
administration.

Before meeting with Mr. Xi, Mr. Yamaguchi met with an array of senior
Chinese officials in Beijing on Thursday, including Wang Jiarui, the head
of the international liaison department of the party’s Central Committee,
an important figure in China’s foreign policy-making apparatus.

Makiko Inoue contributed reporting from Tokyo. Bree Feng contributed
research from Beijing.