Japan and China seek to build trust despite feuds

By Linda Sieg Tue May 6, 10:37 PM ET

TOKYO (Reuters) - Offers of pandas and vows of friendship between China and Japan gave way to harder questions on Wednesday as leaders of the two Asian powers met in a rare summit intended to build mutual trust despite festering disputes.

Chinese President Hu Jintao began his state visit to Japan with a flourish of goodwill by offering two giant pandas, and on Wednesday he was formally welcomed by the emperor and then Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda.

But friction over history, undersea gas reserves, military plans, international influence and consumer safety has divided the neighbors, and mutual public distrust runs deep.

The summit between Hu and Fukuda is meant to ease the feuding and build on a recent warming in often chilly ties, settling on a blueprint for relations between Asia's two economic giants.

In a statement to be released after the summit, the leaders will agree that "cooperation for peace and friendship is the only option for Japan and China," the Japanese Foreign Ministry said.

But the joint document appeared set to focus more on vows to keep discussing the disputes over gas, Japan's bid for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council and other contentious subjects rather than offering breakthroughs in resolving them.

"During Hu's visit, none of these bilateral issues can be avoided," said Huang Dahui, an expert on Japan at Renmin University in Beijing.

"But this visit isn't about solving any of them now. It will be about preventing them dragging down relations and encouraging the right atmosphere so they can be solved later."

DUMPLINGS, TIBET AND TAIWAN

Sino-Japanese ties chilled during Junichiro Koizumi's 2001-2006 term as Japan's prime minister over his visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni war shrine, seen by critics as an offensive symbol of wartime misdeeds.

Tension over that topic has since eased, but Fukuda may press Hu on Tibet, a touchy subject for Beijing.

Protests across Tibetan areas in March, followed by riots, prompted a security crackdown that alarmed Western powers, which have urged Beijing to talk with the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader.

Beijing and Tokyo are also arguing over rights to gas beneath the East China Sea, while a row over Chinese-made dumplings laced with pesticide that made several people sick has become for some a symbol of Japanese alarm at China's rise.

The joint document will say the two nations "agree to make the East China Sea an ocean of peace, prosperity and cooperation."

Japan wants greater transparency about China's surging defense spending, set at 418 billion yuan ($60 billion) for 2008, up 17.6 percent on 2007 and outstripping Japan's defense budget.

Tokyo also wants Chinese backing for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, an issue that fuelled anti-Japanese protests in China in 2005.

In their document, the two sides "will agree to strengthen dialogue and mutual understanding" on United Nations reform and China will state that Beijing hopes to see Japan play a bigger and more constructive role in international society."

China has pressed Japan to declare again its stance on Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing says must accept reunification.

Tokyo has said it supports "one China" that includes Taiwan, which was a Japanese colony for 50 years until 1945 and still has close ties with Japan. In the joint document, Japan will merely say it abides by that position.

Chinese and Japanese leaders are also set to sign agreements on addressing global warming, trade and economic ties and other areas in which they hope to expand cooperation.

(Additional reporting by Chris Buckley, Isabel Reynolds and Chisa Fujioka, Editing by Michael Watson)