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The leaders in their labyrinth

Two leading Asian economies, China and Japan, remain deadlocked in a macabre dance, reiterating past wrongs, which has been leading to an endless cycle of ill will and unreason, with the rhetoric growing shriller and the stakes rising.

When China under a new leadership decided to redirect its economy from manufacturing and exports to one based on domestic consumption and aimed at a lower growth target of around 7.5 per cent after years of double-digit growth, it was on the cards that a defensive Beijing would have to appear more resolute than ever on other issues lest the new dispensation be regarded as weak. The situation has been almost the same in Japan as the Shinzo Abe government seeks to stabilise a faltering economy that has been hammered by political instability, natural disasters and a nuclear accident. So when the two nations locked horns over the controversial group of islands in East China Sea, known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan and claimed by both as their own, the old feud was raked up though the islands are virtually unpopulated and are not known to be mineral-rich. Instead of putting the quarrel on hold till tempers cooled down and better sense prevailed bilaterally, Beijing struck a new blow, declaring a new air defence identification zone of its own over the East China Sea, an act decried by both Tokyo and its defence ally, Washington. Now, in an expected counter-attack, the Japanese prime minister has paid a visit to the controversial Yasukini shrine, a tribute to the Japanese who died during World War II, including 14 leaders considered as war criminals by the rest of the world due to their role in the wanton cruelty displayed by Japanese forces during the war. Abe’s trip, the first by a Japanese PM in eight years, amplifies the present dispute since other neighbours were also victims of the Japanese violence, especially South Korea and the Philippines. Retaliations beget further retaliation and rising tempers come in the way of progress and development, which after all is what the people want.

Beijing must realise that in a world that is increasingly interconnected it cannot impose unilateral decisions simply because it has the largest population in the world and the biggest army. In a civilised united-states scenario, all nations have a single vote each, irrespective of size, and all have to surrender some freedom so that all enjoy certain rights. And Tokyo needs to remember that its war excesses have neither been forgotten nor forgiven. By further needling a wound that has never healed, it is making it fester.