JAPAN AND CHINA

NIWA: JAPAN-CHINA TIES FACES WORST CRISIS IN 40 YEARS

The Asahi Shimbun, October 21, 2012

The Japanese ambassador to China sounded a strong warning on strained bilateral ties following the recent flare-up of a territorial dispute, declaring the situation so dire that it could set back diplomacy between the two nations to a time before they normalized relations 40 years ago.

Uichiro Niwa, who returned to Japan on a temporary visit, stressed the urgency to resolve the “territorial issue” over the Senkaku Islands at the earliest possible time, in an address on Oct. 20.

“The status of bilateral relations might be set back to more than 40 years ago (if the dispute is not settled soon),” Niwa told an audience at Nagoya University, his alma mater. “Otherwise, efforts by many Japanese prime ministers (to maintain good relations with China) over the past four decades could come to naught.”

He said that both nations should never let that occur.

“As Chinese Prime Minister Chou En-lai said, both sides will get hurt in the squabble, with their economies, cultures and art affected,” Niwa, 73, said. “We have to stem the escalation of the feud.”

Niwa described the current souring of Japan-China relations as one the two nations have never experienced since the two countries normalized relations in 1972.

“It is essential for the Japanese side to realize that the recent standoff is totally in a different sphere, compared with the bickering over former Prime Minister Junichiro Koziumi’s visits to Yasukuni Shrine and a Chinese fishing boat’s ramming of Japan Coast Guard vessels off the Senkaku Islands (in 2010),” the ambassador said.

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