What is Dior, Tibet, Stone, Cadre, karma, Sichuan and earthquake all doing in a news item. Torch befuddles the news. The Torch goes to the top of Everest under guard, and the Indian plate jumps 23 feet into the Eurasian plate. No connection. Sure not. Still. The Cadre is spooked.
China embarks on quake diplomacy
Published: May 29 2008 19:41 | Last updated: May 29 2008 19:41
For Sharon Stone, the Sichuan earthquake was karmic retribution. For Wen Jiabao, China’s premier, it was a moment to show the Communist party’s human face. For Japan, it has provided a small, but genuine, opportunity to lay to rest some of the ghosts that still haunt Sino-Japanese relations.
Beijing’s decision to ask Japan’s Air Self Defence Forces to fly relief equipment into Sichuan is rife with symbolism. Not since 1945, when the Japanese withdrew from China after 14 years of brutal expansionism, will a Japanese military aircraft have landed on Chinese soil. China’s seizure of the moment is laudable. So is Japan’s enthusiastic response. Less than two weeks ago the idea had seemed unthinkable. Then, Tokyo sent rescue workers to pick through the rubble of Sichuan. But they flew on commercial aircraft, via Beijing, losing time.
Natural disasters have a way of accelerating existing trends. Earlier this month, Hu Jintao, China’s president, made a remarkable visit to Tokyo in which he praised Japan’s peaceful postwar rise and suggested it could play a bigger international role. The remarks, broadcast live in China, may have come as a shock to many citizens fed a diet of Japan’s wartime barbarities and supposedly continued untrustworthiness.
Mr Hu has correctly gauged that dragging up history to shame China’s most important neighbour is counterproductive. It damages Beijing’s aspiration – evident in its high-level meeting with Taiwan – to be seen as an emerging power willing to join the global order.
The symbolism of Japanese aircraft arriving as saviours rather than aggressors could yet backfire. Internet chatter shows how raw the events of six decades ago still are. “Yesterday their planes were dropping bombs,” says one post. “Today they are giving a little kindness to confuse the Chinese people.” Nor is it certain Beijing’s shift is irreversible. The suspicion remains that, if things get tough domestically, the Communist party may play the anti-Japan card to shore up support.
Yet, rather like the 1995 Kobe earthquake, Sichuan will go down as a turning point. Kobe exposed Japan’s lamentable preparedness. It laid the groundwork for a response to its economic crisis. The Sichuan quake has jolted China just as it was meant to be celebrating its Olympic triumph. It has provided an opportunity to re-evaluate everything from dam construction to the importance of civil society and the role of the Communist party in people’s daily lives. Now it is helping to exorcise wartime ghosts. Some good can come of this tragedy yet.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
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