Japan And China Making Historic Amends, One Humdrum Trip At A Time

China's President Hu Jintao (R) shakes hands with Japan's Prime Minister Taro Aso during a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing April 30, 2009. REUTERS/Jason Lee

Japan And China Making Historic Amends, One Humdrum Trip At A Time -- Christian Science Monitor

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso ended a two-day trip to Beijing Thursday. Both countries affirmed their desire to cooperate but avoided troublesome topics.

BEIJING – I attended Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso’s press conference at the end of his 24-hour trip to China out of a sense of curiosity.

For this short visit, the two countries had stuck to relatively uncontroversial areas of cooperation – the economy, swine flu, global warming, youth exchanges. They did not dwell long on tenser topics like North Korea’s nuclear threat.

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My Comment: This story has been under reported in the West, but what is happening between China and Japan will have significant and long lasting impacts on economic, political, and military/security issues. Make no mistake about it, the number 2 and number 3 economies in the world with a quarter of the population are now laying the groundwork to develop a long lasting spirit of cooperation .... a cooperation that will immediately impact Asia, and with time the rest of the world.

I have no delusions that this will be easy to do. Both countries have a terrible history, as well as a culture that is racist, hateful, and condescending towards each other. I know ... because I have been traveling there for the past 20 years, and I have seen the animosity that both groups have towards each other up cloae.

But fortunately, time has the capacity to erase and wipe the worse that a people or nation may have against another .... and it is this long term view and philosophy that both Japan and China are adopting.

Will it work? It probably will because for both Japan and China .... it is in their mutual long term interest to make it work.