Hatoyama Seeks ‘Fraternal’ Union in East Asia

Prime Minister Hatoyama met on Monday with Chinese President Hu Jintao, where he apparently discussed the idea of an East Asian community, based on the European Union. I will admit that I don’t know all the ins and out of such a plan, and will be interested to learn more about it. I do know that the idea has been kicking around for a while, but Hatoyama seems to strongly support the concept. So much so that in his first meeting with Japan’s most powerful neighbor this was one of the major topics of conversation. After the meeting with the Chinese leader, Hatoyama explained that he ’spoke about the relationship based on fraternal feeling that I would like to build with China’. ‘While recognizing one another’s differences, we should overcome them and build a relationship of trust…’, he said.

There’s that word ‘fraternal’ again. Its certainly a favorite of the new Prime Minister, and it is interesting that he would leap to such a huge topic as an East Asian Union, given all of the challenges that already exist in Japan-China relations (not to mention the other countries as well…). Certainly the sentiment is nice, but it all sounds a little too ‘pie in the sky’ for me (kind of like Obama’s plan to have ‘no nuclear weapons in the world’ – sounds wonderful, and who could say that they don’t wish for the same thing. But it suffers from a slight problem in terms of a little thing called, er, reality….)…

East Asia typically includes Japan, China, Hong Kong (I know, its part of China), Taiwan (I know, ditto…), and North and South Korea (sometimes Mongolia and Vietnam are also included). I’ve lived all of my life on the Pacific Rim, and have met many people from Japan, China, Taiwan and South Korea. The problem I have with this concept from the outset is that a ‘Union’ needs to be built upon a solid foundation of common beliefs, principles, and ideals. And quite frankly I don’t see those commonalities between these nations. Certainly not in the same way that they exist in the European Union, which is a collection of countries that are mostly grounded in Judeo-Christian beliefs, with a common democratic system of government and a mostly common liberal ideological base.

It honestly boggles the mind to imagine Japan joining with communist China (and North Korea?) to agree on much of anything. China still perpetrates major human rights violations, sensors information to its citizens, and the communist party still maintain absolute control over political (and many social) activities. They may be doing well in the ‘PR’ field at the moment, after the Olympics and with their ‘two system, one country’ policy that sees Taiwan and Hong Kong with slightly more ‘independence’ than the mainland… but lets be honest, PR it is…

I have no desire to overly bash China, or to glorify Japan either. But my point is that I think Hatoyama is living in la-la land if he thinks he is going to forge a Union any time in the next decade or two. But then this is the dichotomy of Japan-China relations, which is far too lengthy to get into in great detail here now… Basically Japan have painted themselves into a corner by not having gone through quite the same process as, say, Germany, of purging and bringing into the sunshine ALL of their wartime attrocities – which means that they appear ‘hypocritical’ to attack China for its own abuses of its own citizens. Personally, I would like to see the Japanese government focus more of its attention over the next decade on teaching and bringing to light everything that can be found, and then they will be able to stand proud and tell China that they will need to reform if there is ever to be a serious partnership between the two countries. Certainly Hatoyama is in no position to be attacking China right now, and would be ill-advised to do so except on certain strategic issues. There is a need for deepening trade and cooperation between the two countries. But the issues between them (not to mention the differences in ideology, political system and principles) just seem far too wide for any meaningful ‘Euro-esque’ Union any time soon. Hatoyama would be advised to drop the idea altogether in my opinion, and to focus his attention on other things. He isn’t going to get anywhere with this….

Update: Here is an AP story that gives the ‘gist’ of the talks between Hatoyama and Hu. This suggests that there was a strong focus in tyhe meeting on improving trust and relations, which are valid and important goals. But Hatoyama did apparently at least raise the possibility of an ‘East Asian Community’. My opinions above focus on the idea of an ‘East Asian Union’, which I think is un-workable…

Related posts:

1. New Responsibilities for Hatoyama….. Kuruo…

Tags: China, East Asian Union, Hatoyama