Asia Security on the Table

The relationship between Japan and China is crucial to security in East Asia. That’s why Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi’s current visit to Beijing is being watched closely by Washington. Obuchi’s ability to iron out Tokyo’s differences with the Chinese, especially on matters of regional security and China’s bid for membership in the World Trade Organization, both of which also sour Sino-U.S. ties, could help improve China’s relations with the United States as well.

The two sides will have an opportunity to address some of the hard regional security issues, and Obuchi should assure Chinese leaders that the new Japanese-American defense guidelines do not signal the resurgence of Japan as a military power in East Asia. The guidelines, approved by Japan’s Parliament in May, would broaden Tokyo’s military role in defending its territory as well as “areas surrounding Japan.” The guidelines put the U.S.-Japan military alliance on a more balanced footing but in no way pose a threat of aggression, and Beijing should not interpret them otherwise.

What China can do is to help allay Tokyo’s growing concern about North Korea’s missile program. Pyongyang shocked Japan last summer when it launched a two-stage missile over Japanese territory and threatened to launch another rocket capable of hitting targets anywhere in Japan. Beijing maintains it has little leverage with the unpredictable North Korean leadership, and that might be so. But China supplies some two-thirds of North Korea’s oil and nearly half its food imports, and that gives it a voice in Pyongyang. Beijing’s interests in preventing North Korea from developing nuclear weapons and delivery capability are identical with those of Japan and the United States. It should agree to do all it can to stop North Korea from launching its missile, an event that would sharply raise tensions in Northeast Asia.

Japan, Asia’s industrial leader, has been openly supportive of China’s membership in the World Trade Organization. But Tokyo should not succumb to the temptation to agree on easy terms for WTO entry and leave it to Washington to do the tough trade negotiations. That would be a mistake. Both Japan and the United States--and others--have interests in prying open as widely as possible the markets of the world’s most populous country, but on equitable terms.

Japan and China have much to do to build trust in their difficult relationship. Obuchi could move forward in ways that would benefit both Asian giants and the United States.