讀賣新聞 : CHINA'S GROWING STRENGTH / Chinese leaders facing dissent

The Yomiuri Shimbun

China is making its presence felt on the global stage, and rising Chinese nationalism has caused friction between Japan and China, evidenced by its protests over prime ministerial visits to Yasukuni Shrine and oil exploration in the East China Sea.

Yomiuri Shimbun reporters visited China this summer, which marks the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II. This new series titled "China's Growing Strength" sheds light on what is going on in China and the direction in which it is heading. The first installment of the series follows.

When Yomiuri Shimbun reporters visited Beijing in mid-July, Chinese Communist Party members were not in the mood to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of the war with Japan.

Lin Li, senior researcher of the party's International Department Central Committee, did not hide her irritation over Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine.

"Prime Minister Koizumi said his visits to the shrine are not meant to pay respects to Class-A war criminals, but such criminals are enshrined there," she said.

A party official in Shanghai in charge of Japan policy said that the Yasukuni issue was a time bomb between the two countries.

"A Koizumi pilgrimage to the shrine on Aug. 15 would plunge the bilateral relationship to its lowest ebb," he said.
China is nervous about what will happen on Aug. 15.

Why does China make such a fuss about prime ministerial visits to the shrine?

At the end of July, a man in the southern Guangdong Province well versed in party affairs said in a whisper: "The anti-Japan demonstrations in April were the main problem. At that time, the government was driven into a corner."

On April 15, General Secretary Hu Jintao spoke at a meeting held by the party's political bureau in Zhongnanhai, Beijing, a party stronghold, mapping out measures to deal with violent anti-Japanese demonstrations that were taking place every weekend.

Immediately after the demonstrations, speculation was rife about how the party had handled the protest.

"The China-Japan relationship is so complicated that it can't be resolved by demonstrations, which are held by discontented people. They take advantage of such opportunities to stage demonstrations," Hu was quoted as saying, the first time the contents of his speech have been revealed.

Hu determined that anti-Japanese demonstrations were actions against the party and ordered a ban on demonstrations in Beijing the next day and the arrest of protest organizers.

He concluded the speech by saying that China and Japan need to maintain good relations in future generations.
Calls via the Internet at that time for a protest beginning 9 a.m. on April 16 in Tiananmen Square shocked the party, leading it to conclude the demonstrations were hostile to the party.

Since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, unauthorized gatherings in the square have been regarded as an act of defiance to the party.

The man well versed in party affairs said anti-Communist Party activists could communicate freely via the Internet, increasing their number and encouraging action.

"They are different from a conventional opposition. The party is afraid of the public," he said.

The China-Japan relationship, which can affect China's economic growth, is important, but for the party, retaining the one-party dictatorship is prized above all, he said.

"Thus, the China-Japan relationship has become secondary to the party. They will be regarded as traitors if they apologize to Japan. People will be angry at them. If Koizumi visits the shrine again, the party won't be able to keep people under control," he said.

The Chinese People's Anti-Japanese War Museum near the Marco Polo Bridge in the suburbs of Beijing marks the scene where a 1937 incident triggered the full-scale war between the two countries.

The museum was renovated to mark the 60th anniversary of end of the war with Japan.

However, displays in the museum, which reopened on July 7 to mark the anniversary of the incident, are different from those exhibited in the past.

Dioramas portraying human experiments by the Japanese 731 chemical squad were removed. Photographs of and information about Class-A war criminals are displayed with a photo of Hu and Koizumi shaking hands after a meeting in April in Jakarta placed at the end of other displays.

According to museum sources, some museum staff opposed displaying the photo, but the display was approved in line with Hu's intention.

The photo carries a connotation of urging the prime minister to refrain from visiting the shrine and prohibiting Chinese from staging demonstrations.

(Aug. 4, 2005)