China-Japan ties may rest on trade alone after Tokyo human rights vote

Economic ties could be all that remain of China and Japan’s relations, after a cross-bench parliamentary resolution in Tokyo on China’s human rights record was condemned by Beijing as a “severe provocation”.

Observers said a focus on trade could maintain the peace between the two sides, but they saw little hope of an improvement in security issues.

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China responded forcefully to Tuesday’s resolution in Japan’s lower house, which was supported by most of the country’s ruling and opposition lawmakers. The resolution expressed concern about the “serious human rights situation” in Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia and Hong Kong, without directly naming China.

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Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said the resolution is “extremely vile in nature, as it disregards facts and truth”. He also said Japan had no authority to “make wanton remarks about other countries’ human rights conditions”.

“This is a severe political provocation against the Chinese people. The Chinese government and people are firmly resolved to defend national sovereignty, security and development interests,” he said, in a statement released late on Tuesday.

Zhao said foreign ministry officials had lodged solemn representations with their Japanese counterparts. “The Chinese side reserves the right to take further measures,” he added.

Guo Hai, associate researcher at South China University of technology, said that – unlike European democracies – Japan has long avoided openly confronting China over ideological and human rights issues.

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The resolution reflected Japan’s deeper fears of US abandonment, he said. By playing up human rights issues, Tokyo is looking to “cement its common grounds with other democracies, like the European Union and India, just in case the US commitment wanes”.

“Japan is also keen to take the role as Asia’s leader in maintaining the US-led liberal international order so that the US pays more attention to regional security issues, as well as Sino-Japan relations.”

The resolution’s passage follows months of tensions between China and Japan, which had already announced it will not be sending a government delegation to the Beijing Winter Olympics, which open on Friday.

While the move followed a US-led diplomatic boycott of the Games based on human rights concerns, Tokyo avoided explicitly labelling its decision as such.

The US and Japan also agreed to deepen scientific cooperation on military technology, including defences against hypersonic weapons, a move seen as countering China.

Last month, Kishida said Japan would fortify its defence capabilities to better protect the Nansei island chain – also known as the Ryukyus – which stretches from Kyushu, southernmost of the country’s four main islands, to Taiwan.

Kishida’s announcement followed remarks by his predecessor Shinzo Abe that any emergency over Taiwan would mean an emergency for Japan, as well as for Tokyo’s security alliance with the US.

Beijing regards Taiwan as part of its territory which it has vowed to recover, by force if necessary. The self-ruled island has become a potential flashpoint in China-US rivalry.

Abe’s comments prompted a protest from Chinese assistant foreign minister Hua Chunying, who summoned Japan’s ambassador to tell him they “openly challenged China’s sovereignty and gave brazen support to Taiwan independence forces”.

The two Asian powers also have long-running disputes over ownership of a group of uninhabited islets in the East China Sea, called the Diaoyus in China and Senkaku islands in Japan.

But their defence ministers said in December they had agreed to launch a military hotline to ease tensions in the East China Sea.

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Guo foresees limited room for improvement in the security sphere, especially on the territorial disputes in the East China Sea, but said the two sides may continue to cement economic ties.

“Unlike Russia, Japan is a trading nation and both China and Japan have benefited from free trade. So long as China continues its opening-up while keeping a dynamic balance in security sphere with Japan, it is likely that the two sides can maintain peace,” he said.

Liu Jiangyong, a specialist in China-Japan relations at Tsinghua University in Beijing, noted that although the resolution was pushed by Abe and other right-wing politicians, it received cross-party support including from the Japanese Communist Party.

“This has caused a lot of confusion to those who wish to see improvements in Sino-Japanese relations,” he said.

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Liu said it was time to use less of the “idealist” perspective adopted by some in both countries that China and Japan’s high economic co-dependency means Japan cannot afford to sacrifice its Chinese markets.

“But this is not the current mainstream thinking adopted by realists in Japan’s diplomatic and security field,” Liu said.

“Fumio Kishida has been very conscious of not wanting to be seen as too ‘pro-China’, and therefore introduced what he called ‘a diplomacy of realism for the new era’, which is repackaging Abe’s diplomacy.”

Liu added that Abe’s approach had attempted to maximise economic benefits from China while not wavering on conflicting matters regarding history, sovereignty, Taiwan and ideology.

More from South China Morning Post:

• Japan plans tighter curbs on companies to counter cyberattacks in move aimed at China
• Japan’s Kishida vows to bolster defence of islands near Taiwan amid China tension
• Japan caught between China, US over diplomacy, Winter Olympics boycott, analysts say
• Beijing urges Tokyo not to ‘complicate the situation’ in East China Sea
• China and Japan should ‘properly handle sensitive issues’, Xi tells Kishida in first phone call

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