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FACTBOX-Ahead of the summit: issues between China, Japan
02 May 2008 08:29:57 GMT
 Source: Reuters
May 2 (Reuters) - Japan's Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and China's President Hu Jintao meet next week as part of Hu's May 6-10 state visit, the first by a Chinese president to Japan in a decade.

Here are some unresolved issues on which the two disagree.

HISTORICAL DISPUTES:

-- Japan invaded and occupied much of China from 1931 to 1945. Memories of Japanese atrocities run deep, especially the Nanjing massacre of 1937, when, China says, Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in the then national capital. An Allied tribunal put the death toll at about 142,000, while some conservative Japanese politicians and scholars deny a massacre took place.

-- Japan's annual history textbook revisions have provoked protests in China, which has said some books gloss over Japan's military aggression before and during World War Two.

-- China and other Asian countries are critical of Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine to war dead, which they call a symbol of past militarism. Among some 2.5 million souls honoured in the Shinto shrine are fourteen Class A war criminals convicted by an Allied tribunal after World War Two. Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has said he will not pay his respects at the shrine while in office.

TIBET, TAIWAN, NORTH KOREA:

-- Fukuda may raise concerns over Tibet, following a wave of anti-Chinese unrest there that brought a security crackdown. Japan has urged dialogue between China and the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled Buddhist leader. China has proposed talks with the Dalai Lama's aides but calls the issue an internal one.

-- China wants Japan to clearly back Beijing's stance on Taiwan, the self-ruled island that China wants to accept eventual unification. Japan says it accepts "one China", but China also opposes any official contacts between Japan and Taiwan, and dislikes Tokyo's contacts with the United States on Taiwan Strait security.

-- China and Japan are part of six-party talks aiming to halt North Korea's nuclear ambitions. But Pyongyang's missile tests have also led Tokyo to enhance cooperation with the United States on missile defence, which worries Beijing.

THE EAST CHINA SEA DISPUTE:

-- China and Japan have been at odds over China's exploration for natural gas in the East China Sea near an area that Japan claims as its exclusive economic zone.

-- Japan says the median line between the two countries' coasts is the boundary. China says the boundary is defined by its continental shelf, extending its zone beyond the median line.

-- Tokyo objects to Chinese development of the Chunxiao gas field in seas close to Japan's claimed boundary. Japan fears drilling there could drain gas from what it claims is its side of the line through a honeycomb of seabed rocks.

-- The sea also holds a group of eight islets, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, over which both Tokyo and Beijing claim sovereignty.

INTERNATIONAL SECURITY:

-- Japan wants a bigger global security role and a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. Protests against Japan erupted in China in April 2005, largely driven by opposition to Japan's bid for the Security Council seat.

-- Beijing is wary of Tokyo's efforts to escape the limits of its pacifist post-war constitution on military activity abroad, while Japan worries about China's fast military modernisation.

TRADE/FOOD SAFETY:

-- China replaced the U.S. as Japan's top trade partner in 2007, with two-way trade totalling $236.6 billion, up 12 percent year-on-year over 2006, according to the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO).

-In 2007, Japan's foreign direct investment to China was $6.2 billion, inching up 0.8 percent from 2006, but down from $6.6 billion in 2005, according to JETRO.

-- Food safety is likely to be raised at the summit, as worries have slowed Japan's food imports from China. Frozen dumplings from China made several Japanese sick earlier this year, bringing accusations the dumplings had been deliberately poisoned.

Sources: Reuters, Japan External Trade Organisation (http://www.jetro.go.jp/en/news/releases/20080229066-news), Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China (http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/topics/3713/3715/t19063.htm), Selig Harrison (ed.); Seabed Petroleum in Northeast Asia (http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Asia_petroleum.pdf)

(Writing by Gillian Murdoch, Singapore Editorial Reference Unit)


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