Japan walking tightrope in China diplomacy

HANOI —

Japan is finding that mending fences with its powerful neighbor China is like walking a tightrope after hopes for a summit between their prime ministers in Hanoi on the sidelines of Asian meetings crumbled at the eleventh hour with China’s rejection of bilateral talks.

Japan ended up having merely an informal 10-minute encounter between Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Saturday morning, following their informal meeting in Brussels on Oct 4 on the fringes of an Asia-Europe summit.

Kan himself sought to play down the current Japan-China row, saying in a news conference that their problems are not that serious if all the past issues are looked at, and called for calm in addressing the matter.

‘‘I believe that it is very possible for Japan-China ties to develop further…if both our countries deepen efforts for strategic, mutually beneficial ties,’’ the premier said.

Japanese government officials maintained they are keeping their cool over the matter, but the abrupt cancellation has left them guessing at China’s intentions and looking for a way out of the stalemate.

Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Tetsuro Fukuyama, who was part of Kan’s delegation, admitted to reporters that he could not rule out the impact of the latest move on Sino-Japanese ties.

The Japanese government had wanted to use the Hanoi meeting between Kan and Wen to lay the groundwork for Kan’s possible meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Yokohama next month on the fringes of the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

Given the latest developments, holding a Kan-Hu meeting would be ‘‘difficult,’’ a Japanese government source said, referring to China’s accusation that Japan made false statements in connection with their foreign ministerial talks held Friday morning and ruined the atmosphere for Kan to meet Wen.

Before the Hanoi meetings involving the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and their dialogue partners, there were signs that tensions were easing as Tokyo and Beijing arranged for the ‘‘official’’ Kan-Wen talks, which were initially set for Friday evening.

Tokyo and Beijing have been having their worst spat in years stemming from Japan’s arrest of a Chinese trawler captain on suspicion of ramming his vessel into one of the Japan Coast Guard patrol boats near the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands, which are claimed by China. Although the captain was subsequently released amid perceived Chinese pressure, the incident was a blow to the Kan administration which has been blasted for its weak-kneed diplomacy.

‘Sino-Japanese relations are in deep trouble and I think the Senkaku Island dispute is symptomatic of broader, deeper problems in the relationship,’’ Jeffrey Kingston, director of Asian studies at Temple University in Tokyo, said, referring to basic differences such as a lack of trust.

Kingston said he believes the deterioration of bilateral ties now is ‘‘even worse’’ than when they became frosty following Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s repeated visits to the war-related Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo from 2005, since the latest dispute involved the government itself and not just the personal acts of a Japanese leader.

The visits irked China and South Korea since the shrine honors the war dead along with war criminals and is seen as a symbol of Japanese wartime aggression.

Sino-Japanese ties also continue to be overshadowed by growing concerns over Beijing’s move to use as a diplomatic card its ‘‘rare earth’’ resources, which are vital for making high-tech goods, pundits say.

‘‘What we’ve seen in this recent dispute was that actually, politics and economics aren’t insulated from each other, with the disruption of Chinese exports and rare earths to Japan effectively looking like sanctions, at least from Tokyo’s perception,’’ Kingston said.

While China appears to be winning this tug-of-war with Japan, Tokyo seems to have found some allies among Southeast Asian nations, some of which, such as Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines, also have maritime disputes with China in the South China Sea.

During the Japan-ASEAN summit on Friday, Kan was quoted as saying to his ASEAN counterparts that Japan responded calmly to tensions with China.

On Tokyo’s handling of the incident, the Philippines praised Japan for responding calmly over the matter, a Japanese government official said.

‘‘What China did inadvertently was to undo all the goodwill it has carefully cultivated, and it has also undermined its diplomacy of projecting an unthreatening, rising China,’’ Kingston said, adding that this has given the United States a cue to step in and involve itself more in Asia in a power balance against China.

Whether the cancellation of the Wen-Kan talks is simply a bump along the way in Japan-China relations or whether ties will continue to be complicated by domestic concerns such as the recent spate of violent anti-Japan protests remains unclear.

Meanwhile, other Asian neighbors look on with interest and hope that Japan and China can patch up their differences.

Thailand’s Trade Representative Kiat Sittheeamorn said he believes Japan and China ‘‘love each other but they also have issues that they have to fight each other for their own interests.’‘

‘‘Of course it’s in the interest of ASEAN that tension like that not escalate,’’ Ricky Ramon Carandang, a government spokesman of the Philippines, said. ‘‘But again, this is something between China and Japan and ASEAN is there merely to support and to hope for a peaceful resolution to any of these tensions.’’