Newsletter No. 1427
News-Analysis
August 2, 2009

 

TOKYO TAKES FLAK FROM BEIJING OVER KADEER VISIT

Complaints from Beijing did not derail World Uyghur Congress leader Rebiya Kadeer’s visit to Tokyo. Kadeer had been invited by non-governmental groups and had no official meetings with government leaders, but in fact she did have an unofficial meeting on the morning of the 29th with a group of LDP lawmakers, led by House of Councillors member Seiichi Eto. Significantly, this meeting was held at the LDP Headquarters building in central Tokyo.

Kadeer told the press after the meeting with the LDP lawmakers that she was thankful to them for allowing the meeting to take place at the ruling party’s headquarters, and then observed: “I received the impression that they will not accept China’s continued oppression of the Uighurs.”

Kadeer also addressed Japan National Press Club, declaring, “Nearly ten thousand people disappeared overnight from Urumqi. Where did they go? Were they all killed or sent somewhere? The Chinese government should fully disclose what it did to them… We want the international community, such as the United Nations, to send an independent investigative team… It is the Chinese government that is responsible for turning what had started as a peaceful march into the deadly riots.” She referred to the Chinese government’s policies in Xinjiang as “ethnic cleansing.”

The Chinese Response

The Chinese government, of course, was loudly complaining about Kadeer’s visit even before it occurred. On the same day that Kadeer met the LDP lawmakers and gave her press conference, Deputy Foreign Minister Wu Dawei in Beijing summoned Japan’s ambassador to China, Yuji Miyamoto, and registered his government’s objection.

A day earlier, China disrupted an overseas broadcast by Japanese national broadcaster NHK when they televised a story about Kadeer’s visit. Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang explained, “We express strong dissatisfaction over the Japanese government bent on allowing Rebiya to visit Japan to engage in anti-China separatist activities despite China’s repeated and solemn representations.”

For their part, MOFA simply denied that there was any problem. Press Secretary Kazuo Kodama said, “We examined her visa application, approved it and issued the visa based on the usual procedure. We do not believe her visit would negatively affect Japan-China relations.”

For a shrill Chinese response to these events, see the People’s Daily article below.

Analysis

Ordinarily, the insensitivity of the Japanese government to the feelings of their Asian neighbors is something that annoys me. Japanese conservatives often seem to delight in offending Koreans and Chinese, and unnecessarily raising the temperature in these relationships. Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s gratuitous visits to Yasukuni Shrine were perhaps the leading example of this behavior.

In this case, however, I believe that Tokyo is perfectly correct to treat Beijing’s protests with contempt. Even if one were to credit Beijing’s contention that its problems in Xinjiang stem entirely from the insidious plots of outside agitators like Rebiya Kadeer (a notion that I find to be both farcical and also quite typical of authoritarian regimes), it is still not the Chinese government’s place to tell other sovereign nations which individuals they may allow to visit and which they must refuse.

Frankly, I’m a little surprised about how badly Beijing is handling this whole issue because usually they have a lighter and surer touch in their foreign diplomacy. The Chinese are doing themselves no favors in the international community by handling the Xinjiang issue in the way that they have been doing over the past month. Not only in Japan, but consider how Beijing’s line must be playing in the Islamic world, where they have many important interests.

This is one of those odd cases where both left and right in Japan are basically on the same page, even if this is not an issue of immediate and central concern to most ordinary Japanese.

Does Japan Put Itself in China's Place?
People's Daily
July 31, 2009

A riot occurred in Urumqi, the capital of China's northwestern Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region on July 5. And three and a half weeks later, on July 29, Rebiya Kadeer, a chief instigator unceasingly fanning unrest among her followers, spoke a lot of nonsense in Japan to viciously slander and smear the Chinese government.

Recently, the Chinese government lodged a solemn representation in advance to the Japanese government, but the Japanese side paid no attention to it and instead insisted on letting Rebiya visit Japan as planned.

With the exception of Prime Minster Yasuo Fukuda's cabinet, leaders of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in power have repeatedly allowed former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui and the Dalai Lama to visit Japan since 2000 and made the Chinese side strongly resentful.

The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs granted Rebiya Kadeer an entry permit this time with a subsequent recurrence of frictions between China and Japan, and this has drawn simultaneous denunciations from Chinese netizens. The Japanese side, however, took China's representation merely as a routine business that would not impact bilateral ties.

Nevertheless, Japanese authorities have never crossed their mind to deem Li Teng-hui, the Dalai Lama and Rebiya as bigwigs to separate China, representing the "Taiwan Independence", "Tibet Independence" and "Xinjiang Independence."

The Japanese government granted them their entry into the Japanese territory to engage in activities designed to split China and thus deepened the misunderstanding of Japanese citizens about China. This is not conducive, not only to the establishment of political mutual trust between the two East Asia neighbors, but to the betterment of popular sentiments among people of both countries. The Chinese government gave Japan advice proceeding precisely from the overall situation of defending the ethnic unity and social stability at home and spurring the improvement and healthy growth of Sino-Japanese ties.

Atrocities or heinous crimes in the infamous Urumqi riot have aroused deep indignation among people in China. Rebiya's Japan trip was aimed to go on assaulting or slandering the Chinese government deliberately through fabricating rumors, creating disturbances and shirking off the responsibilities for their crimes. And Japan's allowing a visit by Rebiya apparently harms the image of Japan in China.

Please just think of serious consequences it may incur: If China grants Japanese subjects the permit into China to engage in activities against their own government, how could the Japanese think of it then? Would Japan put itself in China's place?

Since Rebiya Kadeer was invited by a non-government organization (NGO), the Japanese government could not turn down her entry, explained a Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman.

It sounds pretty much to the Chinese people that any anti-China activities staged in Japan may be the things of the "devil-care-free" sort as long as they are stamped with "packaging" of non-government organizations (NGO). In fact, if Japanese authorities come to see the seriousness of the riot and take into account the hard-won overall situation in bilateral ties, Japan is fully capable to reject the entry of such troublemakers.

Moreover, if Japan, as China's close neighbor, elaborates clearly and unequivocally that it is opposed to the terrorism of any form, and this undoubtedly conforms to Sino-Japanese strategic, mutually-beneficial relations. Otherwise, it will bring serious consequences to Sino-Japanese ties, provided the Japanese government and media regard the Chinese government's just action as "suppression" or as an "infringement of human rights." As a matter of fact, this is something the people of both countries do like to see.