Tensions between Tokyo and Beijing took centre-stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday as Japan's prime minister called for military restraint in Asia and a senior Chinese academic branded him a troublemaker. Sino-Japanese ties, long coloured by what Beijing considers Tokyo's failure to atone for its brutal occupation of parts of China before and during World War Two, have deteriorated in the past two years over a territorial dispute, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to a shrine that critics say glorifies Japan's wartime past and a new Chinese air-defence zone. "We must ... restrain military expansion in Asia, which could otherwise go unchecked," Mr Abe told the annual Davos policy forum. He is the first Japanese prime minister to give the keynote speech at the gathering. "The dividend of growth must not be wasted on military expansion," he said. "We must use it to invest in innovation and human capital, which will further boost growth in the region." Advertisement He added: "Japan has sworn an oath never again to wage a war... We will continue to be wishing for the world to be at peace." Mr Abe is pursuing a more assertive military and national-security policy, such as moving towards approving the use of force to help allies under attack and calling for debate on revising Japan's pacifist post-war constitution. His government has ended years of declines in defence spending and plans modest increases in coming years. At the same time, Tokyo has criticised China's decades of hefty rises in military spending and implicitly accused Beijing of a lack of transparency in its defence budgets. "Military budgets should be made completely transparent and there should be public disclosure in a form that can be verified," Mr Abe said, following his government's custom of not naming China in such references. He also called for resolving disputes through "dialogue and the rule of law, and not through force and coercion", a formula Japan has used to criticise China's actions including its abrupt declaration in November of an "air defence identification zone" overlapping the disputed East China Sea islets controlled by Japan. "We must lay down rules that promote actions based on the international law of the sea," he said. "Only then, I believe, can we achieve growth and prosperity in Asia, where all of us can realise our great potential." Mr Abe said the Yasukuni Shrine honours the dead of World War One and the 1868 Meiji war, not just war criminals or others who died in World War Two, and it also contains a memorial to all the victims of war regardless of nationality. Previous prime ministers had gone to the shrine, he said, noting he had made a commitment on his visit to ensure that Japan never again became involved in a war. Mr Abe's stance draw sharp criticism from Chinese academic Wu Xinbo, speaking on another Davos panel, who branded the Japanese leader a "troublemaker" and equated him with North Korea's unpredictable leadership. Mr Wu, whose views usually reflect those of the Chinese leadership, said trust between the two countries was very low, chiefly because of Mr Abe's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine, which had fanned public hostility in China. While neither China, Japan nor the United States had an interest in war, relations were set to remain very tense, he said, adding that Beijing and Tokyo should develop a crisis communication mechanism. "Political relations between our two countries will remain very cool, even frozen for the remaining years of Abe in Japan," said Wu, professor of international studies at Fudan University in China. China demands that all aircraft flying through the zone identify themselves to Chinese authorities. Japan has urged China to rescind the decision, and its military and civilian aircraft have defied the requirements, flying through the zone without notifying China. Japan's treaty ally, the United States, refuses to recognise the zone and has sent military aircraft through it. Mr Abe also reiterated his plans to revive growth in the world's third-biggest economy, increase the participation of women in society and review the portfolio of Japan's $US1.2 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund. Like Germany and England before WW1? Abe Davos economic forum warn China militancy,MORE information about sino-Japanese relationship subscribe and browse channal at http://youtube.com/user/cosmeticmachines as well as blogspot at http://cosmeticfoodmakingpackaging.blogspot.com

• published: 24 Jan 2014
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