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China, Japan air divergent views on Iraq

By P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE Feb. 12. China and Japan are drifting apart on the Iraq crisis. China has decided to take a firm anti-war line at variance with the U.S. after giving it some benefit of the doubt about how far Iraq might comply with the U.N. resolutions designed to erase its profile as a ``proliferator'' of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

While the Chinese President, Jiang Zemin, made his country's position clear in a telephonic conversation with his French counterpart, Jacques Chirac, on Tuesday night, the Japanese Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, indicated in Tokyo today that the question of war and peace in Iraq would depend on the actions of its leader, Saddam Hussein.

This exposes the nuances and shades of opinions on Iraq in East Asia, too. But the differences in this region, such as they have begun to evolve, are not as dramatic or significant in scope as those within the NATO or across the new political divide between the U.S. and Russia on Baghdad's alleged efforts to take the world for a ride.

Several key countries in South-East Asia are opposed to the idea of any U.S.-led war on Iraq at this point, although their assertiveness in this regard varies from one state to another.

On the whole, the wider East Asian region is inclined to favour a "peaceful" resolution of the two issues of Iraq's WMD potential and North Korea's nuclear weaponisation plans. It is within this parameter that China and Japan have expressed their views on Iraq.

Mr. Koizumi said, during a parliamentary session today, that "it is for Iraq to explain itself'' as the U.N. weapons inspections could not be construed as a form of investigation.

Without spelling out what Tokyo might do in the event of a military attacks on Iraq by the U.S., the Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yasao Fukuda, told Japanese journalists today that it was time for the international community to adopt a "consistent approach" in dealing with Iraq. Japan, for its part, would take a more definitive stand about war and peace only after evaluating the report by the U.N. inspectors to the Security Council on Friday.

In contrast to Japan's pro-U.S. tilt, China has come to the conclusion that the ongoing weapons inspections in Iraq were effective and that these should be sustained. Overall, Beijing wants a political solution within the framework of the U.N.

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