Tokyo (AsiaNews/Agencies) - The visit of Chinese president Hu Jintao to Japan continues amid honours and affirmations of friendship, while enthusiastic comments continue on the memorandum for stable relations signed yesterday together with Japanese prime minister Yasuo Fukuda. But Hu was protested today by students at Waseda University in Tokyo.
The agreement reached is unprecedented: in the only other official visit of a Chinese president to Japan, in 1998 Jiang Zemin refused to sign a joint statement with prime minister Keizo Obuchi, because it did not include Japanese apologies over the wartime atrocities committed in China. Hu, to the contrary, speaks of "a better future for China-Japan relations".
Fukuda has announced that economic talks at the highest level will take place in the fall: the two Asian giants expect mutual trade and economic benefits. Beginning with an agreement for the use of gas deposits in the East China Sea, on which both leaders say there has been "significant progress".
Yesterday, before the summit, Hu received a formal welcome from emperor Akihito, who held a banquet in his honour in the evening. He met with the leaders of five political parties.
The two sides are being careful not to touch on problematic topics: Hu did not recall the war atrocities, and Fukuda limited himself to generic statements on the Tibetan problem, and to asking for the resumption of regular dialogue on human rights, but without any specific request. The "historic document" does not even mention human rights, which are perhaps less urgent than economic interests. Besides, Beijing has talked about "human rights" with leading nations, including Japan, before the deterioration of relations when Junichiro Koizumi was prime minister between 2001 and 2006.
Today there were clashes between police and students in front of Waseda University, where Hu talked about development, friendship, and cooperation, invited 100 students to China, and played ping pong. There were many posters with slogans like "Free Tibet" and "No pandas, no poisoned dumplings", a reference to the two pandas "lent" by Beijing as a sign of friendship, and to the controversy over contaminated Chinese food.
The well-known Tokyo newspaper Asahi today commented that "it does not matter how many fine words are spoken, unless they are implemented in concrete policies". (PB)