https://www.scmp.com/rss/276246/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com During the last Lunar New Year holiday, half a million Chinese visited the country they are supposed to hate the most - Japan - and they poured US$1 billion into the sluggish Japanese economy. Some bought souvenirs by the container load, filled with cameras, rice cookers, medicines, perfume, air cleaners and even toilet seats. And all this happened amid nationalistic rifts stirred up by politicians. Leaders, are you watching? Ancient Japan adopted Han culture and language, to the extent that... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1765440/economic-links-between-china-and-japan-can-overcome?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1765440/economic-links-between-china-and-japan-can-overcome?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 13 Apr 2015 06:37:35 +0000 It seems ironic that while President Xi Jinping proposed an "Asia-Pacific dream" at the Apec summit, he also showed an unwilling and defiant face when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was going to shake his hand. Contrast that with five years ago, when Xi, as vice-president and head of a delegation to Japan, requested a meeting with the Japanese emperor, even though it was not in his original schedule and, according to protocol, an application should have been filed a month in advance. Then,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1644622/cool-heads-and-warm-hearts-needed-regional-peace-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1644622/cool-heads-and-warm-hearts-needed-regional-peace-and?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 20 Nov 2014 10:00:30 +0000 Years ago, a former Japanese colleague asked me about the Analects of Confucius . But I couldn't help because I had never learned any of Confucius' teachings. He was so stunned he asked whether I had actually been educated in China. Now that I recall, as a child I did learn something: we used to sing songs such as "Traitor Lin Biao, Kong Lao Er, both are bad elements!" - Kong Lao Er being a disparaging reference to Confucius. Later I learned that in Japan, Confucius' teachings are part of... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1427153/do-chinese-and-japanese-really-want-life-filled-hatred-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1427153/do-chinese-and-japanese-really-want-life-filled-hatred-and?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 13 Feb 2014 10:15:30 +0000 The release online of a documentary; The Silent Contest, made by the People's Liberation Army's National Defence University, has stirred controversy. It claims that China is being infiltrated and subverted by the US, just as the Soviet Union was before its collapse. This is in marked contrast to China's international appearance, where leaders have repeatedly said they do not seek hegemony. Vice-premier Wang Yang, even said that the relationship between China and the US should be "like husband... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1361169/china-must-make-friends-not-foes-thrive?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1361169/china-must-make-friends-not-foes-thrive?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 20 Nov 2013 10:00:45 +0000 Whenever I'm travelling around the European Union, I often sit and watch people crossing country borders as if they were strolling around one village, and merely passing a stop sign. Back at home, though, things are different. The showdowns over the Diaoyu Islands seem to be escalating, with a group of Japanese nationalists attempting to land on the islands, and China sending military vessels in response, and then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe threatening to use force if the Chinese dare to... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1227615/china-and-japan-must-rise-above-interest-group-politics-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1227615/china-and-japan-must-rise-above-interest-group-politics-and?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 01 May 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Years ago, I had the honour to be at the same dinner table as a famous Indian scholar. I candidly asked him the following question: India has so many excellent economists at Harvard, MIT, Chicago, Stanford, and Cambridge, just to name a few - so, why was the Indian economy in such a bad shape? His answer surprised me: because Britain had colonised India, India chose to learn from the Soviet Union for many years, even though many Indians knew that the British system might be much better. Pioneers... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1158402/what-china-can-learn-japan?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1158402/what-china-can-learn-japan?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 25 Feb 2013 16:00:00 +0000 A total change of direction has occurred on the Diaoyus/Senkakus dispute. On January 18, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed opposition to "any unilateral actions that would seek to undermine Japanese administration" over the islands. Since then, a Japanese convoy led by New Komeito party chief Natsuo Yamaguchi has visited China, carrying Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's letter to Xi Jinping , and Xi has held talks with Yamaguchi. Yet, just a few days before, leaders from... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1138726/some-sabre-rattling-over-diaoyus/senkakus-not-vain?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1138726/some-sabre-rattling-over-diaoyus/senkakus-not-vain?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 29 Jan 2013 16:00:00 +0000 So the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), led by Yoshihiko Noda, was defeated by a landslide only three years after it had won by a landslide over the Liberal Democratic Party. When presidents of other countries usually emerge as heroes in the face of disaster, you may well wonder how, in Japan, incumbent leaders often end up total losers. Perhaps the DPJ deserved the defeat, because it is not the same party that took over power three years ago. In 2009, voters were frustrated with the LDP's long... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1109240/economy-will-still-be-japans-no-1-priority?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1109240/economy-will-still-be-japans-no-1-priority?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 20 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000 I have been a professor in Japan for more than 18 years. But only recently have I begun to receive lots of worried inquiries from family and friends in China, asking if I and my family are sheltered from the "demonstrations and riots in Japan". I have had to tell them again and again that there are no riots - the several large demonstrations in the summer were all against the Japanese government's approval of the reopening of nuclear power plants. The only one against China was a protest... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1057142/japan-and-china-each-seeing-its-own-pain?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1057142/japan-and-china-each-seeing-its-own-pain?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 09 Oct 2012 16:00:00 +0000