Since Shinzo Abe, the former Japanese prime minister, made his ground-breaking visit to China in 2006, the talk between Tokyo and Beijing has been of melting ice and spring warmth.
Now they have added pandas and ping-pong to the language of their diplomatic exchanges. Last week's visit of President Hu Jintao to Japan – the first by a Chinese head of state in a decade – was marked by China's offer to lend a pair of pandas to a Tokyo zoo and a game of ping-pong for Mr Hu at the city's Waseda University.作者: 飞雪寒冰 时间: 2008-5-13 10:06
批评人士很快指出，这类外交姿态并未伴随着实质性成果。迄今为止，在天然气储量丰富的东海水域，两国尚未解决可能带来危险的边界纠纷。双方友好的官方语言也没有反映到民意中，在日本，遭到中国****的西藏佛教徒的命运，以及受杀虫剂污染的中国饺子导致消费者患病事件，都令民众情绪激昂。
Critics are quick to point out that such gestures have not been accompanied by concrete achievements. The two nations have so far failed to resolve their potentially dangerous boundary dispute over the gas-rich waters of the East China Sea. Nor is the friendly official language on both sides reflected in public opinion; in Japan, for example, popular feelings are running high over the fate of Tibetan Buddhists persecuted by China and over imported dumplings tainted with pesticide that made consumers ill.
But it would be wrong to under-estimate the significance of this rapprochement between the two great powers of east Asia. The Japanese premiership of Junichiro Koizumi from 2001 to 2006 was marred by rancour over Japan's war record and a lack of high-level visits.
Real progress has been made in the past two years, culminating in an agreement this week between Mr Hu and Yasuo Fukuda, the current Japanese prime minister, to hold annual summits and deepen both civilian and military exchanges. Mr Hu said Sino-Japanese relations were “at a new historic starting point” and both sides agreed that an agreement jointly to exploit oil and gas resources in the East China Sea was “in sight”.
These are welcome developments for the region and for the rest of the world, particularly the US, Japan's ally and the recognised guarantor of peace in the Pacific. It was risky not to have a friendly channel of communication between Beijing and Tokyo. Misunderstandings and conflicts are always possible over such issues as North Korea's emergence as a nuclear power, let alone the various bilateral disputes between Tokyo and Beijing.作者: 飞雪寒冰 时间: 2008-5-13 10:10
下一步应该是使双边关系突破预防冲突的范畴，迈向污染控制等造福两国乃至世界其它地方的建设性领域。胡Jintao和福田康夫已创造了良好的开端，因为任何一方都难以逆转时钟，回到小泉时代一事无成的敌意盛行的局面。
The next step should be to move the relationship beyond conflict- prevention to move into constructive areas such as pollution control that will benefit both countries as well as the wider world. Mr Hu and Mr Fukuda have made a good start, for it will be hard for either country to turn the clock back to the time of the fruitless hostility that prevailed in the Koizumi era.作者: 飞雪寒冰 时间: 2008-5-13 13:26
:victory: 大家都抗击地震了，呵呵~英语版块好冷清作者: zyyue0915 时间: 2008-5-13 17:14
提示: 作者被禁止或删除 内容自动屏蔽作者: zyyue0915 时间: 2008-5-13 17:14
提示: 作者被禁止或删除 内容自动屏蔽作者: 飞雪寒冰 时间: 2008-5-14 21:19
