Japan and Taiwan historically are not natural friends. But the increasing power and influence China is exercising in the South China Sea and the greater Pacific has prompted Japan to seek closer ties to Taiwan.
Taiwan's aspirations for independence are a moot point. China will go to war to prevent Taiwan's secession from China.
Japan to start with, does not even have official diplomatic relations with Taiwan. But it seeks to remedy that by the introduction of a new agreement that would create stronger economic relations with the island nation.
Even though things are still at a nascent stage, China has wasted no time in contrasting the effort. China wants to make sure it appears to be well aware of the Japanese effort, and that it unconditionally rejects any such effort.
In fact, China has already termed the proposed Japan-Taiwan pact as provocative against China. What China in particular wants to avoid, is a repeat of the US-Taiwan pact, which allowed de facto sale of arms to Taiwan on the part of the US. China has also expressed its will to curtail any possible extension of the proposed pact to the sale of any arms.
For its part, Taiwan is not shying away from expressing its pleasure toward the proposed pact, and terms it merely a 'warming' of relations, cutting at the knee any interpretation that would lead the Chinese government to believe it has aims of using the pact to secure independence. The fact remains however, that the pact is seen as a Pacific zone 'security stabilizer'. That kind of euphemism does not sit well in China, and is bound to escalate however slowly the already discreet friction between China and Japan.
With this move, Japan also moves a little further away from its neutral position, something that Japan maintained and cultivated as an image for decades since World War II. Now however, as China constantly tests the wills of neighboring nations, some of them are willing to step out and push back.
At the basis of such improved relations, is the fact that Taiwan is one of Japan's foremost trading partners.
Long gone, then, seem to be the echoes of Japan's occupation of Taiwan. Public sentiment in Taiwan, which has overtly or not always tried to identify itself as being closer to Western countries than the motherland, has shifted so powerfully since the great world war, that Japan is seen in a good light, or at least in an enough good light to be considered for such economic and strategic relations. A recent poll has placed pro-Japanese sentiment as high as 65%.
In the past, Taiwan has even stepped in and lent a hand to Japan in the 'string of pearls' incidents, involving sovereignty over small islands in the South China Sea. Japan in fact, even signed a fishing treaty with Taiwan that allows both countries to trawl the waters off the islands in a gesture of thanks for Taiwan's support.
The diplomatic resolution of the island dispute with Taiwan also gives Japan a better standing because it shows its willingness to compromise, albeit only with Taiwan, but it puts China in a position where it looks like the country will less flexibility, although in truth the fishing agreement is a subtle reminder of Japan's willingness to push back against China's growing influence and muscle flexing.
In the People Daily newspaper, an article details how Chinese authorities are considering Japan's actions as an attempt to declare Taiwan a sovereign state. The article goes on to quote Liang Yunziang, prof. of Japanese studies at Peking University, who said that Japan's efforts should be seen as "deliberation of the act is actually a step that calls for a high alert".
Whereas Taiwan's former leader Lee Teng-Hui has advocated for an independent Taiwan, he expressed the sentiment that the proposed relations agreement is nothing more than the conclusion of a long mission on the part of Tokyo which is finally seeing enactment.
The Chinese for now, are undeterred, and will probably remain so. They see Japan's actions as nothing more than strenthening 'future' alliances or sympathies that are aimed at diminishing China's sphere of influence and power.
op_ed
Source: China DAily/Diplomat/ 2.21.14
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