Japan said yesterday it has begun processing applications to let Japanese companies drill for natural gas in a disputed area of the East China Sea, a decision likely to further inflame Tokyo's worst diplomatic row with China in decades.
The flare-up -- which began last week as part of a long-standing feud over Japan's wartime atrocities -- risks jeopardizing Tokyo's bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council and blocking the countries' flourishing trade and investment ties.
Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said it will approve corporate bids "as quickly as possible" for deep-sea gas exploration in waters just east of what Tokyo says is its sea border with China. Beijing disputes that border.
A ministry official said approval was expected within two to three months.
China's Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment. The two countries' foreign ministers were scheduled to hold two-day talks in Beijing starting Sunday.
Tensions have escalated since last week, when Tokyo approved new Japanese history textbooks that critics say play down Japan's wartime atrocities.
That triggered anti-Japan protests on Saturday in China's capital, where an angry mob hurled rocks and bottles at the Japanese Embassy, smashing windows.
The rift reflects a fierce rivalry between Japan and China over regional dominance and potentially rich energy sources needed to power their massive economies.
Experts said relations between the two nations had sunk to their worst in three decades.
"They haven't had a falling out like this since establishing diplomatic ties in 1972," Tokuji Kasahara, a professor at Tsuru University, west of Tokyo, and an expert on Japan-China relations.
Tokyo repeatedly has accused China of exploring the oil fields in Japan's exclusive economic zone, demanding that Beijing halt the activities or share the results. Last week, Trade Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said Tokyo would go ahead with plans to let Japanese companies begin test-drilling in early April.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi denied that Tokyo's decision was prompted by China's handling of the protests or Beijing's refusal to apologize.
"It's only a procedure. We will handle it in an orderly manner," Koizumi said.
History has affected Japan's relations with its neighbors for decades.
China, South Korea and other Asian nations have long accused Japan of failing to express adequate contrition for its conquests of the 1930s and 1940s, during which China says as many as 30 million of its people died. The suspicions have only deepened with Koizumi's annual visits to a Tokyo shrine honoring Japan's war dead -- including convicted World War II criminals -- and Tokyo's push for a higher profile on the global stage with a dispatch of peacekeeping troops to Afghanistan and Iraq.
The economic and political repercussions of Tokyo's dispute with Beijing are huge.
China is Japan's second-biggest trading partner, behind the US, with two-way shipments totaling US$170 billion last year. Political discord could hurt Japanese companies' chances of winning infrastructure projects in China, possibly disrupt shipments from those companies' China-based plants and spark boycotts of Japanese goods by Chinese consumers.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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