Torn between two lovers . . .

Dateline: Grand Hyatt Washington DC, 19 April 2005

I don't what it is about sad, sappy 70's love songs and me lately. Don't hate me for my childhood.

Up and working on the notes, waiting for the call. Check my email and see the following story from Post:

Japanese Official's Trip to China Fails to Break Political Deadlock

By Edward Cody

Washington Post Foreign Service

Tuesday, April 19, 2005; Page A10

BEIJING, April 18 -- A two-day fence-mending visit by the Japanese foreign minister ended Monday with no sign China and Japan are prepared to back away from the political and territorial disputes that have pushed their relations to a postwar low.

"I don't know the reason why we would have to change our policies with regard to China," said Hatsuhisa Takashima, a spokesman for Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura.

The unyielding positions of both countries appear sharpened by a sense of strategic rivalry as China's power expands across Asia and Japan redefines its regional military role in close cooperation with the United States. In the newly adversarial atmosphere, China has opposed Japan's bid to become a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, saying it is unfit for such leadership until it faces its past.

"Since the normalization of relations in 1972, this is the most difficult of the difficult, the most serious difficulty," said China's deputy foreign minister, Wu Dawei. "And it has lasted a relatively long time."

Watching the China-Japan tussle work itself out is really interesting. Everyone knows the outcome: China will get big, Japan will align its stars increasingly with Beijing in the region, and the US will have to go along with that. But everyone is working against that outcome now in an almost knee-jerk fashion: US thinks it's going to contain China (sucking up to India, which knows better, and pulling Japan on security issues with China like Taiwan), Japan thinks it'll use US to balance Beijing (as if it isn't already so deeply in bed with China economically to render that option fairly moot--as is the US, BTW), and China thinks it's going to single-handedly adjust it's tone with Japan without triggering a backlash (knowing full well how well Tokyo deals with such ultimatums).

Here's what Japan and the US need to remember: China and India realize their collective heft, and so do most in the Middle East, Russia and the EU--not to mention the rest of Asia (ASEAN, Australia, New Zealand). We need to be looking downstream to solutions, not dicking around with the pressure points of today. The US should be pushing Japan on its WWII history-rewriting. This stuff is really cheesy and offensive and should be stopped (what good is it?). If Japan wants to be taken seriously like Germany is, it has to put that crap aside finally, and waiting for similar maturity from China on its own recent history is stupid. That's like my ten-year-old comparing his behavior to my five-year-old: China's just not that grown up yet and Japan can't wait on that process if it wants to get (UNSC permanent seat, etc) what it wants to get NOW.

If the US is not taking a big, in-everyone's-face role on this, then Rice is asleep at the wheel, and if anyone in the Pentagon or White House thinks this war of words is in our long-term interests, they should have their heads examined. I have heard nothing from the US in the press on any of this, and that's not right. We're missing in action on this and there's no good reason for it. What we do today we don't have to catch up on tomorrow. Name calling is fine and fun for a while, but what's emerging right now between China and Japan is just plain wrong.

Full article found here