Japan needs China for growth: academic
Beijing has economic cards at its disposal in its diplomatic dealings with Tokyo because the mainland is now the key engine driving Japan's economic revival, according to a central government researcher.
'China has already replaced the United States as the crucial factor that could determine the recovery of the Japanese economy,' said Jin Bosong , a researcher with the Ministry of Commerce's Academy of International Trade and Economic Co-operation.
In an article published by the China Youth Daily yesterday, Mr Jin said the way China played those cards in its relationship with Tokyo had become a new subject for study.
The Japanese economy, the world's second biggest, has long relied on the United States, but it has been suffering from more than a decade of recession.
'[We] should study how to fight back against Japan's use of the economic card,' Mr Jin wrote, accusing Tokyo of using its powerful economy to put pressure on China in the hope of gaining political and diplomatic benefits.
The growth of Sino-Japanese trade has slowed in recent years. Japan was China's No1 trade partner in the 1990s, but it was the third largest last year, behind Europe and the US. Trade between the two countries fell from 24 per cent of China's total external trade in 1994 to only 13 per cent last year.
'It is the Japanese government that took the initiative to 'cool down' relations, expanding both nations' differences over issues of politics, history and diplomacy to cover economics and trade,' Mr Jin said.
Relations between Tokyo and Beijing have been strained by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine.
Reciprocal visits by leaders of the two nations have been suspended since October 2001. However, Japan's economy, trade and industry minister, Toshihiro Nikai, will visit China today in a sign that the Asian rivals are seeking to improve ties, at least in the economic arena.
Mr Jin said Tokyo was an old hand at playing economic cards in diplomacy. However, China could now exert more influence on the international stage with its newly acquired 'soft power'.
He said China was now the second wealthiest nation in terms of its more than US$800 billion foreign exchange reserves, behind only Japan. It was also the second most significant contributor to global economic growth, after the US.
With its gross domestic product growing by 9.9 per cent last year to more than US$2.2 trillion, China leapfrogged France and Britain to become the world's fourth-largest economy, behind only the US, Japan and Germany.
'It is only China that can help the Japanese economy emerge out of recession, ending an era of failure, regaining confidence and entering smoothly into a new era of development,' Mr Jin said.
