After criticizing Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao’s choice of words recently, I think it’s only fair to point out some impressive oration on his part yesterday. It came during a speech to the Japanese Diet, the first by a Chinese leader to that body in more than 20 years. He said that while Japan’s invasion of China caused great loss of life and property for the Chinese people, he acknowledged Tokyo’s apologies and said the war also brought great misery and pain to Japan. It was the sort of noble talk that both confronts Japan with its wartime role but also offers hope the tense relations between the two nations is improving.
Wen was not content with mere speechifying. During his three-day visit he seemed intent on warming relations by sheer heat of physical exertion. The 64-year-old went for an early morning jog and chatted with Tokyo residents, did tai chi with a group in a park, planted tomato seedlings with a farmer and played baseball with a college team. Proof that despite all those drab meeting hall photos, the Chinese leadership knows the power of a good image.
Of course, the statements on energy and environmental cooperation that the two sides issued are baby steps. Bryan Walsh, TIME’s Tokyo bureau chief, says that the Japanese were looking for something more in the way of concrete measures, particularly in the contentious area of how to develop natural gas fields in the East China Sea. As Bryan notes in a piece from earlier this week, there are plenty of reasons why warming ties might not be a permanent trend. The citizens of Japan and China are far from enamored with each other, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose popularity is in the tank, could feel pressured by conservatives to visit the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, a sure way to spoil the Sino-Japanese love fest.