China says Japan ties face test, opportunity this year

Japan's thinking is that it was Korea and China which taught the world, false history, and that Japan is the victim of Korea and China. They really believe this. What I'm trying to get at is that, I think it's just ridiculous to demand atonement from a country which is really not mentally right.

"Japan" doesn't think anything, or teach anything. It's a nation of 120 million people, each of whom have their own thoughts and opinions. The country is not a living entity. It goes without saying that diagnosing a country of 120 million as mentally ill says more about the doctor that it does about the patient.

Taking an entire country and characterising it as one person is a typical propaganda ploy used to stir up hatred and start wars. Please learn the names of the individuals or groups you disagree with. If you were American, would you like to be characterised as mentally ill because of the actions of Bush, Cheney or Obama?

Hotmail, please study the content of trade. Chinese industry would shut down without high end materials and components that only Japan makes. Also, you should actually visit Japan someday and talk to some real Japanese. And visit China. I do to China 2 or 3 times a year on business, and ordinary Chinese don't care at all about this, just like ordinary Japanese. This is just squealing of Chinese and Japanese leaders who crave attention.

Are the Chinese ever going to forget the War of almost 100 years ago and move on? What do they want the Japanese to do? It is time they looked at their own History!

The problem with "atonement" is that only Japan alone is asked to atone. Japan was part of an Imperialist system set up by Europe (and a latecomer at that). Atonement is not for Japan, but for Japan and Europe together, but nobody asks Europe for atonement. Has Britain apologized for Empire (remember, "The sun never sets on the British Empire")? As long as only Japan is always held to account, you give the rightists what they need to power their movement to clean up Japanese history, just like the Europeans have cleaned up their history (White History).

Right. Because China is a shining star of virtue in today's world.

Test the PRC: look for atonement for Tianmen Square, its brutal oppression of Tibetans, religious minorities, a free press, multiparty elections. No? All else is grandstanding, posturing meant to preserve the dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party. Topple the CCP and let freedom reign.

ohh a test, i guess the proper way to answer the test is give up the islands and Okinawa to Chinese authority, write a treaty giving up all authority to the East China Sea and Sea of Japan to China and start paying a yearly tribute and remove the Defense Force in return to having the Peoples Army stationed on the main islands (for "Protection")

i like tests- they are sooo reasonable....

Chinese leaders are loud-mouthed and arrogant, as usual.

We all observed what happened in Crimea, tibet, east china sea. BRICS countries love land grabbing by force.

“It is true that the current China-Japan relationship is in difficulty," But Chinese restaurants, and massage parlors are doing so well in Japan.

“It is true that the current China-Japan relationship is in difficulty," But Chinese restaurants, and massage parlors are doing so well in Japan.

...and Chinese tourists are helping Japan to reduce its trade deficit.

China knows they don't need irrelevant Japan.

Ridiculous. Japan is China's #3 trading partner.

To the European eye these backward quarrels are trifles, really. Go forward, will you not?

Considering China has already marked Japan's paper with a failing grade, Japan should just not show up this test.

China is right on the money with this one

Also, the institution that brought about that catastrophy in China is gone. How about one "Congratulations!, good on you, Japan", even just once.

The Chinese, the Koreans, and the Americans, too, are waiting to see if Abe Shinzo is statesman enough to rise above revisionism and denial.

You are speaking for a lot of people there, aren't you. I guess you are probably qualified to do so ...

As for me, I'm waiting to see the communists stop their saber rattling and their incursions into the territory of their neighbors. And I'm waiting (in vain I know) to see the ROK honor its signatures on documents signed in 1965 that should have concluded this matter once and for all.

Japan is currently ruled by history deniers who look fondly back at 1930's military Japan.

That is not true, but even if it were it would do no more than put them (Japan's leaders) on equal footing with the communists leading the PRC who continue to pay loud and grandiose lipservice to failed doctrines, enslave their people, corrupt the environment, threaten their neighbors openly, and worship at the mausoleum of fat dead guys who killed whacks and whacks more people than the IJA on their worst days.

Japan has atoned. They have apologized. They have NOT kowtowed to either China or Korea. Nor should they. Japan doesn't like to shout "mea culpa" like Germany, so that makes them different. But they have learned their lesson. Enough is enough.

China is just looking for leverage. Yeah, Japan and the Europeans made a mess of China up to 1945. But from 1945 - 1990 the Chinese were the ones making the mess of China all on their own. Who is going to "atone" for that?

" Li said. “The crux of the issue is how the war and that part of history are viewed.”

That's correct. China needs to stop pretending that they defeted Imperial Japan in WWII. It was the ROC under Chiang Kai Shek who was a allie power, not Mao and the Chinese Red Army. But mostlyChia needs to stop pretending that they didn't acept Japan's apology in 1972,receive ODA (which China insisted on instead of the reparations offered by Japan) and signed the , Sino-Japanese Treaty of Friendship wjich Chima itself reaffirmed in 1978. China was able to get off it's hole-in-the-ground-toilet ecnomic state with help from Japan which lead to full western help. Now that Chia doesn't need Japan's help they conveniently forget the 1972 treaty and the last 40 years of relations. What a pathetic and untrustworthy country.

“It is true that the current China-Japan relationship is in difficulty," But Chinese restaurants, and massage parlors are doing so well in Japan. Japanese man Masters of love lol. I knew there had to be some love for china somewhere in Japan

hum! A failing grade for Japan! Who was the TEACHER? Someone from the Far East?

Is China going to apoligise for invading Japan even though it didn't work out when the "Divine Wind" destroyed their fleet. It's time to put past generations of name calling away. China mainly seems to want to exert power over all of Asia and whip up anti Japanese feeling in their people to cover the current military build up against the rest of Asia..

What Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said on Sunday was actually ” 对牛弹琴 “- playing musical intrument to a cow- fig. offering a treat to an unappreciative audience.

Let's be invisible to each other, as long as only in conflict scenario.

After all trade a quarter lesser, half lesser or three quarter lesser wouldn't make much different, the world still believed China and Japan are 1st or 3rd largest trading partner to each other.

So does China...

Have they forgotten the mountains of money given to China? All the Chinese Japan has educated for free? (Recent Chinese ambasadors all speak fluend Japanese.) Some of my classmates were Chinese who got everything free. They were well chosen and very hard working. All the development money? Of course some loans, but lots of ODA. What needs to be done to atone? Anyway, the squeeling of Chinese and Japanese politicians are wisely ignored by their populations.

Chinese should eventually get their turn to deal with Chinese history if China ever becomes a democracy & people have some real freedoms!

Japan has had these for many decades & have to date BLOWN IT big time, throwing $$$$$$$$$ & being silent & whitewashing don't equal dealing with your ghosts just saying!

I agree that Abe must take this opportunity to fix the relationship between Japan-China. But it is unfair for only telling that to Japan but China should cooperate too by at least being a welcoming leader Xi (who was so unwelcoming). I hope Abe must do the right thing though.

I think the Chinese statements are ridiculous on its own when the real problem is not lack of atonement, it's the fundalmental belief in Japan's current thinking that the entire world's history text books have been manipulated by Korea and China. For instance, Japan is spending $15 million on American universities in their attempt to bribe the schools into teaching 'correct' history, as noted here.

http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCAKBN0M905M20150313?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0

Not to mention, Japan's attempt to intimidate McGraw Hill, the American book publishing company, into changing the text books to whitewash Japan's WWII record.

Japan's thinking is that it was Korea and China which taught the world, false history, and that Japan is the victim of Korea and China. They really believe this. What I'm trying to get at is that, I think it's just ridiculous to demand atonement from a country which is really not mentally right. After all, would you demand an apology from a mentally ill person who says strange offensive things? Of course not. Instead those ill persons with psychological problems are forcibly admitted into psychiatric wards, who cares what they babble?

I think China should just leave Japan alone to muddle through by themselves. Stop all exchanges, trades, and tours. Just ignoring each other would make everything so easy. Japan is currently ruled by history deniers who look fondly back at 1930's military Japan. Others will accuse me of sweeping generalizations against all Japanese, but I ask them why aren't there any Japanese voices that speak up against it, instead there seems to be much more public support? Yeah thought so.

China obviously think this too.

South China Morning Post (subscription)-2 hours ago Chinese investment in South Korea is surging ahead of a free-trade agreement between the two countries while Chinese funds going into Japan plunge...

http://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/1738486/chinas-south-korea-investment-soars-ahead-free-trade-pact

The problem with "atonement" is that only Japan alone is asked to atone.

No, that is not the problem. The fact that other countries are not asked to atone does not absolve Japan's responsibility to atone for its wrongs. If anyone has done any wrong to Japan, Japan has the right to ask for atonement from those countries.

The Chinese, the Koreans, and the Americans, too, are waiting to see if Abe Shinzo is statesman enough to rise above revisionism and denial. The first test is in May in America. Will he try to just assuage the Americans by expressing remorse for fighting and losing to the Americans, ignoring the Chinese and everybody else who is non-white. He should remember that the last Congress passed a sense of the Congress resolution for Abe to deal squarely with history. He should remember that Americans have memories, too, and want an ally who is the best since 1945 and not one we'd to "rectifying" what occurred up to 1945.

Next on the plate are the Koreans in June who will see how much Abe Shinzo values the normalization of relations fifty years ago. It had been the Koreans who have been trying the most to patch up things among the three Northeast Asian countries, and while China has not been helpful neither had Japan very much.

There is then August when the expected Abe statement will presumably be unveiled. Will it be the slick evasiveness and sometimes downright denial or he will he rise above his rightist roots and actually be forward looking, pre-emptying the Chinese especially but also the Koreans and others by seizing the moral high ground by sincerely expressing remorse.

Then comes September, when the Chinese hold their 70th anniversary event. If Abe can show that the beautiful country since 1945 is such because it has embraced with sincerity the ugly country that Japan was up to 1945, he will be better positioned to talk about post-1945 China.

China knows they don't need irrelevant Japan. Economically, Japan's merits are zero since they still are a mercantile isolationist economy.