FILE - In this Nov. 10, 2014, file photo, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, left, and China's President Xi Jinping, righ
WASHINGTON (AP) — When the leaders of China and Japan met this week, posing for an awkward handshake and ending a high-level diplomatic freeze, it took some of the edge off tensions that have unnerved Washington. But former senior U.S. officials doubt the highly anticipated meeting between President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe heralds a fundamental improvement in relations.
As a treaty ally of Japan, the U.S. could be drawn into fighting if a shooting war breaks out over Japanese-administered islands claimed by both China and Japan, so Washington has been closely watching the signs of thaw between Tokyo and Beijing."They looked like they were smelling each other's socks," former deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage told a Washington think tank Wednesday.
Since Japan nationalized some of the disputed islands in 2012, China has cranked up sea and air patrols, prompting a cat-and-mouse with Japanese forces. Maintaining it has no position on the sovereignty dispute, the U.S. has been calling for "cooler heads" to prevail.
The Obama administration warmly welcomed China and Japan's announcement of a gradual resumption of high-level political and security dialogue, and then Monday's meeting between Xi and Abe on the sidelines of an economic summit of Asia-Pacific leaders in Beijing. Deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes called it "an opportunity to reduce the tensions between those two countries."
Kurt Campbell, a former top U.S. diplomat and architect of Obama's "pivot" strategy toward Asia, said despite deep differences among them, leaders in Northeast Asia share a view that confrontation and conflict is not in their strategic interests.
"So I think they will take steps to mute that. I think there will be a modest improvement in China-Japan relations," he said.
Michael Green, an Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said it would have been "poor form" in the eyes of other leaders for the summit host, Xi, to refuse Abe's request for a meeting. China expert Bonnie Glaser said it also reflected Xi's recognition of the need to avoid a conflict.
"Xi Jinping appears to recognize the risks of a military accident in the air or at sea," said Glaser.
China and Japan announced they would establish a mechanism for crisis management. Separately, China and the U.S. agreed Wednesday their militaries would GIVE
each other more guidance about their activities in the Pacific. That followed upbeat meetings between Xi and President Barack Obama that also yielded a breakthrough agreement on reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
each other more guidance about their activities in the Pacific. That followed upbeat meetings between Xi and President Barack Obama that also yielded a breakthrough agreement on reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
While the U.S. and China want to show they can cooperate on big issues where their interests coincide, the differences between China and Japan are more visceral, rooted in China's resentment over history and Japan's fears of China's military expansion and assertiveness.
Campbell said he expected some easing of tension between them for the next year or two, but the underlying problems and antagonism would remain.
Armitage, who served in the George W. Bush administration, contended that relations will not improve while China exploits nationalist sentiment against Japan to distract from China's internal problems. He also noted growing antipathy toward China among the Japanese public.
Source: YAHOO.COM
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