Koizumi charm key in wooing China

Koizumi will need to draw on his well of charm when he visits China on Monday

By Jaime A. FlorCruz
CNN's Beijing Bureau Chief

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Liu Anyi bitterly recalls the Japanese occupation of China in the 1930s.

As a Tsinghua University senior in Beijing, he was forced to retreat to the "rear area" in southern Sichuan Province to escape arrest by the Japanese army. His life was turned upside down, his promising career derailed. He eye-witnessed numerous Japanese atrocities.

For 87-year-old Liu, the passage of time hasn't healed wounds.

"Japan is really bad. After the 1894 war, Japan prospered at China's expense, but these ingrates invaded us," he says. "My generation will never change our views on Japan."

When Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visits Beijing next Monday, in a hastily arranged working visit, he will have to assuage the kind of lingering animosity that Liu expresses so bluntly. It's going to be a challenging assignment.

Japanese soldiers brutally killed millions of Chinese during World War II. It is not surprising that survivors react angrily at anything they consider a revival of Japan's militarism. When Koizumi visited the Shinto shrine, which honors the war dead, including war criminals, in August, he sparked an outcry.

Koizumi's hosts have a laundry list of other complaints. Anti-Japan sentiments boiled up last spring when Tokyo approved a new Japanese school textbook which critics here say whitewashes its wartime crimes.

Trade disputes are festering, too. To protect its hard-up farmers, Japan slapped steep tariffs on mushrooms and other Chinese farm imports in April. Beijing struck back, tit for tat, imposing punitive duties on Japanese-made cars, mobile phones and air conditioners.

These irritants have sparked fierce reactions among Chinese who believe Japan has yet to make a sincere act of contrition, provide compensation to the millions of war victims, and pledge never to revive its aggressive military ambitions ever again.

And now that Koizumi has decided to endorse a controversial bill that will allow its defense forces to give logistical support to the U.S.-led campaign to fight terrorism, many Chinese are nervous.

"In the fight against terrorism, the international community faces a common task," says Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao.

"On the other hand ... due to historical reasons, it's quite obvious that the role that the Japanese government can play in the military field is a very sensitive question."

Zhang Biqing, a Japan expert at the China International Issues Research Center in Beijing, explains: "We're worried that once Japan breaks the taboo this time, it would send troops overseas with the slightest excuse. We hope they will not exceed the limit of its pacifist constitution. We hope they will be prudent."

Koizumi will need prudence and patience to reassure his Chinese hosts that Japan is not returning to its militarist past. Beijing's leaders may be more forward-looking this time.

China will host this month's APEC summit in Shanghai, which will bring together several world leaders, including U.S. President George Bush, to discuss global economic and political issues.

The Chinese leadership would like Koizumi's help in turning that meeting into a huge success.