Feng Zhaokui

Help in times of trouble

By Feng Zhaokui (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-03-30 07:42

China, Japan and others should strengthen solidarity and cooperation in the face of natural and man-made disasters

Up to now, the death toll and the number of people missing as a result of the magnitude-9.0 earthquake off the northeast coast of Japan and the subsequent tsunami mean it is one of the most serious crises in the history of Japan. The World Bank warns the economic cost could amount to as much as $235 billion.

After the earthquake and tsunami, Chinese leaders immediately extended their sympathy and condolences to the Japanese people. The Chinese government also sent a rescue team to Japan and provided its neighbor with emergency humanitarian aid materials and fuel.

Many Chinese netizens also expressed their condolences to the Japanese people through various channels, including the website of the Japanese embassy in China, leading to the Japanese Ambassador thanking the Chinese people on TV.

Though the impact of the earthquake, tsunami and ongoing crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant continues to grow, most Japanese people are keeping calm and relief work is being conducted in an orderly manner.

Chinese citizens in the worst hit area have received the same help as local people. Keeping such good social order and impartiality during the relief work has impressed many people.

As is known to all, in recent years due to fears of China's military buildup and the Diaoyu Islands dispute, the Japanese people's impression of China has fallen to its lowest level since China and Japan resumed diplomatic relations in 1972. So improving relations between the two peoples is essential in order to improve the overall bilateral relationship.

In the face of natural disasters, including the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in China, the governments and people of both nations have supported each other, extending mutual sympathy and standing together to mourn the victims. These actions reflect the humanitarian spirit and have narrowed the psychological distance between the two peoples.

For Japan, post-quake reconstruction and restoration of its industries in its northeast is of major importance.

For example, the worst-hit northeast region of Japan is a major global supplier of semiconductor silicon wafers.

An important plant of Shin-Etsu Chemical, the world's largest silicon wafer producer, is located in Fukushima Prefecture, where a nuclear crisis is unfolding. The plant accounts for 22 percent of the world's total silicon wafer production. The world's electronic industry is looking forward to Japanese high-tech enterprises affected by the disaster restoring production soon, so as to prevent the outbreak of the transnational industrial chain.

China-Japan economic and trade relations will further develop and deepen in the future, as Japan is likely to transfer some of its production from earthquake-prone areas to neighboring countries including China, especially production of semiconductor chips, which require extremely high precision; even low-intensity earthquakes can affect product quality and manufacturing yield.

Meanwhile, the crisis at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant caused by the earthquake and ensuing tsunami have increased the urgency for China, Japan and other East Asian countries and regions to join together and enhance nuclear safety, especially as China has six established nuclear power plants in coastal areas and 10 others under construction.

Nuclear safety is a common safety problem regardless of national boundaries. Therefore, learning the lessons from Japan's misery and guaranteeing the safety of nuclear power plants is a common task facing Japan, China and other East Asian countries and regions.

The massive earthquake in Japan shows the formidable power of nature and cautions us to strengthen solidarity and cooperation, to jointly cope with natural and escalating anthropogenic disasters, including environmental pollution, climate change, desertification, deforestation and so on. The impacts of anthropogenic disasters are not as abrupt as earthquakes and tsunamis, but they are destroying the planet, our common home, stealthily and chronically.

There are differences between China and Japan, as well as between China and the United States. However, in the face of the greater conflict between human beings and nature, the contradictions between nations are less important than the need to resolve these anthropogenic disasters.

In this sense, the disaster in Japan should inspire countries, especially neighboring countries with increasing interdependence and solidarity in environmental interests, to judiciously address the contradictions between them.

The author is a researcher with the Institute of Japanese Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

(China Daily 03/30/2011 page8)