Japan Urges China to Reduce Pollution

BEIJING — Japan urged China to do more to fight global warming and pledged to help the country reduce runaway pollution during high-level talks in the Chinese capital on Friday.
 
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda of Japan made energy and environmental issues the centerpiece of his four-day visit to China, hoping to build on a recent improvement in relations.

The countries have disputes over territory, energy resources, wartime history and military spending. Mr. Fukuda’s visit, his first as prime minister, promised no major breakthroughs.

But both sides said that relations had improved markedly since Junichiro Koizumi left the prime minister’s office 15 months ago. Mr. Koizumi had repeatedly visited Tokyo’s Yasukuni war shrine, which is seen by critics as a symbol of Japan’s past militarism. Mr. Fukuda, 71, who took office in September and whose father signed a peace treaty with Beijing in 1978, vowed not to visit Yasukuni while in office.

Mr. Koizumi’s successor, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, never visited the shrine, but never publicly vowed to refrain from doing so. China, which has long demanded that Japanese prime ministers halt such visits, has responded warmly to Mr. Fukuda’s promise.

Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China, speaking with Mr. Fukuda at his side on Friday, said relations had entered a “spring season.” Mr. Fukuda said the two countries should put more effort into jointly fighting climate change, and promised to step up aid and technology transfer to help China improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions.

“In the long history of our relations, there has never been a time when Japan and China have had more influence or responsibilities in Asia and the world,” Mr. Fukuda said.

China has displaced Japan as Asia’s largest manufacturing country. But it is grappling with severe environmental problems, as its air, water, land and human health have suffered from poor enforcement of environmental rules, reliance on dirty coal and low energy efficiency. This year, according to outside estimates, China also became the largest producer of global warming gases, surpassing the United States.

Japan, in contrast, uses less energy per dollar of economic output than any other developed country. It has cut its carbon emissions sharply, partly by outsourcing manufacturing to China and other Asian countries.

“China is the major emitting country of greenhouse gases,” Mitsuo Sakaba, press secretary for Japan’s foreign minister, Masahiko Komura, said to reporters. “So without Chinese engagement in programs of reducing the emission of greenhouse gases, any international effort will inevitably be without effect.”

Mr. Sakaba and other officials spoke of stepped-up environmental aid to China. But neither side provided specifics.

The Japanese government and its companies have provided technology to Chinese factories to help them improve efficiency and capture waste gases. But those efforts remain limited, partly because Chinese companies have not been required to buy top-flight equipment, and Japanese companies have been reluctant to provide their latest technology at a discount.

In other areas, the two sides held talks about a simmering dispute over control of natural gas resources along the border separating their economic zones in the East China Sea. China has tapped gas from an area close to what Japan sees as its zone, which Japan has treated as an encroachment. Japanese officials said the two sides have made “last ditch” attempts to find a compromise. But there was no immediate sign that Mr. Fukuda and Mr. Wen had reached a deal.

Japan has also expressed concerns about China’s military buildup. Beijing says it will increase military spending by 18 percent, to $45 billion this year. The Pentagon estimates China’s actual spending on its armed forces to be at least double that figure. China has sought to build a modern navy. It has more than 20 new assault ships and nuclear-powered attack submarines.

Chinese analysts say they worry about Japan, which they say has pushed the limits of its pacifist Constitution as it tries to become a full military partner of the United States.

Despite those fears, military tensions eased a bit last month, when a Chinese warship made a friendly port call to Japan. The visit had been planned more than five years before, but was repeatedly delayed.

Resource: The New York Times