【英语国际】中日摩擦进入新阶段？

Tensions between Japan and China continued to simmer even after Japan bowed to Beijing's demands to release a detained Chinese fishing-boat captain, suggesting the episode could mark the start of a new period of friction between the Asian neighbors, with unpredictable consequences for regional stability.

Opposition politicians and the Japanese media hammered Prime Minister Naoto Kan's government after a decision by prosecutors to free the trawler captain, Zhan Qixiong, whose vessel rammed into Japanese coast-guard patrol boats near disputed islands. They accused the government of handling the incident in a way that portrayed Japan as weak and succumbing to pressure from China.

There were scattered signs of more extreme anger from Japan's small group of right-wing activists. On Sunday, a 20-year-old man was arrested after he threw what appeared to be a flare at the Chinese Consulate General in Nagasaki, police said. No injuries were reported. On Saturday, a 32-year-old man was arrested near the prime minister's office with a bag containing a kitchen knife, Kyodo News Service reported. The man told the police he had come to protest the captain's release, Kyodo said. That arrest couldn't be independently confirmed.

In China, nationalistic media fanned the flames. The Global Times ran a blog post on its website by a political scholar at Fudan University, Yi Tianfeng, which portrayed the incident as part of a struggle for supremacy. 'The gaming between China and Japan will be a protracted war,' Mr. Yi wrote, arguing that an economically vibrant China eventually would gain an edge on a stagnating Japan both politically and militarily.

'The damage to the good momentum of China-Japan relations has once again exposed Japan's serious misunderstandings -- and ignominious plots -- in dealing with China,' said a commentary in the People's Daily, the voice of the Communist Party.

China demanded Saturday that Japan apologize for the incident, suggesting that China's steadily intensifying actions against Japan over the past 2 1/2 weeks -- from curbing diplomatic exchanges to scaling back commercial activity -- may not abate. 'China of course has the right to demand Japan apologize and make compensation,' Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in a statement.

Japan's foreign ministry rejected the demand using equally stern language. 'The demand by the Chinese side for an apology and compensation is completely groundless and is utterly unacceptable to Japan,' that statement said.

Earlier, Japan's new foreign minister had suggested that the incident had prompted Japan to re-evaluate its strategic priorities.

Seiji Maehara told The Wall Street Journal in an interview on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York that Tokyo would participate in a broader 'strategic dialogue' with the U.S., 'cooperating more closely' on policy toward China, North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan and other countries.

'Countries the world over watched how China reacted,' he said.

The dispute centers around a chain of uninhabited islands known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in Chinese. The tiny archipelago is located between Taiwan and Okinawa in southern Japan, and is under Japanese control, though China and Taiwan also claim possession of the territory. Japan says its arrest and detention of the captain was the proper enforcement of domestic laws on domestic territory, while the Chinese have said Japan improperly punished a Chinese national who was in Chinese territory.

In the days following the captain's Sept. 7 detention, public reaction in Japan was considerably more muted than in China. But the captain's release has triggered harsh political criticism against the three-month-old Kan administration, raising new questions about the ruling Democratic Party of Japan's ability to navigate choppy diplomatic waters.

An editorial Saturday in the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, Japan's largest daily, blasted the captain's release as 'a political decision that put the mending of Japan-China relations as a priority.' It added: 'It is inconsistent, as investigative authorities cited the malign nature of the incident to explain the arrest and detention of the skipper.'

Prosecutors decided Friday to release the captain without taking further legal action against him for now. The Naha District Public Prosecutors Office in Okinawa Prefecture, which was investigating the captain, said: 'The impact on the people of this nation and the future of Japan-China relations were taken into consideration.'

Japanese government officials, including Prime Minister Kan, denied any political influence on the prosecutors' decision, but local media said there was no doubt the issue was settled in a political decision with national government input.

'To begin with, prosecutors are not authorized to determine what kind of 'future Japan-China ties' are desirable,' said Japanese business daily the Nikkei Shimbun. The Mainichi Shimbun shared that view in its editorial, saying it was 'odd' for the prosecutors to refer to 'diplomatic considerations' in releasing the captain and that it contradicted the government stance that the issue would be handled in accordance with the law.

The Asahi Shimbun said, 'It must be a high-level political judgment by the Kan administration.' The paper's editorial also said: 'In the first place, did the Kan government forecast the possible reaction of China and how to conclude the issue when it decided to arrest the captain?'

'It cannot be helped if the weakness of the DPJ's diplomacy is pointed out,' it said. 'It should reflect on it seriously as a bitter lesson.'

The criticism by the Japanese papers was echoed by opposition party members on NHK, the public broadcaster. 'What message did Tokyo send to other Asian nations which have territorial disputes [with China]?' said Nobuteru Ishihara, secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party, the largest opposition bloc. He added that the decision would also confuse members of the Japanese coast guards who are on duty at sea. 'What should they do if China again illegally enters our territorial waters?'

Kenji Eda, secretary general of Your Party, another opposition party, shared his view on the 'Sunday Debate' show on NHK television. 'I would like to suggest that the government submits a videotape which filmed the incident as evidence to a parliament session. We must reveal the truth and show the world and let it decide how unreasonable China is being . . . Without doing so, we will not be able to restore confidence in our diplomacy.'

Several Chinese experts said they thought Japan had taken an unusually firm line against Beijing and delayed the captain's release as part of a broader regional trend, encouraged by the U.S., to stand up to an increasingly assertive China.

But they appeared divided on how China should respond, with some calling for stronger punitive measures against Japan, and others advocating a less confrontational approach towards foreign policy, especially territorial issues.

Li Guoqiang, an expert on territorial issues at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the captain's release was a victory for Chinese diplomacy, and showed that such crises were best resolved through dialogue.

'The official protests and other actions taken by the Chinese government were successful,' he said. 'This already shows other countries in the region that there will be consequences for this kind of behavior. But I do not agree that it is necessary to take stronger measures against Japan.'

Associated Press香港抗议者举行反日集会在日本按照北京的要求释放一名被扣押的中国渔船船长之后，两国之间的紧张关系仍继续升温。这说明此次撞船事件有可能标志着这两个亚洲邻国进入一个新的摩擦期，给地区稳定带来不可预料的后果。

日本检方已释放中国船长詹其雄；后者的拖网渔船曾在一片争议岛屿附近冲撞日本海上保安厅的巡逻船。在做出释放决定之后，以菅直人(Naoto Kan)为首相的日本政府受到反对派和日本媒体的猛烈抨击。他们指责政府处理事件的方式让日本显得很软弱，并且是在向中国的压力低头。

AFP/Getty Images中日撞船事件始末零星的迹象表明，日本少数右翼活动人士怀着更加极端的怒火。周日，一名20岁的男子被捕，警方说，他曾向中国驻长崎总领事馆投掷一枚疑似照明弹。此事没有伤亡情况报告。据共同社报道，周六，一名32岁的男子在首相办公室附近被捕，被捕时他身上携带着一个内藏一把菜刀的包。共同社说，这名男子告诉警方，他是来抗议释放中国船长的。本报记者未能独立证实这条消息。

在中国，民族主义色彩的媒体火上浇油。《环球时报》的网站上刊登了复旦大学政治系学者易天丰的一篇博客文章，文中将这起事件描述为一场高下较量的一部分。易天丰写道：“中日博弈要打一场新持久战”。他认为，一个具有经济活力的中国，相对于停滞中的日本，终将在政治上和军事上取得优势。

中共喉舌《人民日报》发表评论文章说：“中日关系的良好势头受到破坏，再次暴露了日本在处理对华关系上的严重误区和不光彩计谋。”

中国周六要求日本为此事道歉，这意味着过去两周半中国针对日本稳步加强的反制措施──包括限制外交交流，也包括减少商务活动等──可能不会减弱。中国外交部发言人姜瑜发表声明说：“中方当然有权要求日方作出道歉和赔偿。”

日本外务省以同样强硬的措辞拒绝了这个要求。其声明说，中方的道歉和赔偿要求是完全没有根据的，对日本来说是完全不可接受的。

AFP/Getty Images中国船长詹其雄抵达福州机场日本新任外务大臣前原诚司(Seiji Maehara)早前暗示，事件已经促使日本重新评估其战略重点。

前原诚司在纽约联合国大会(General Assembly)间隙接受《华尔街日报》采访说，东京将与美国展开涉及更大范围的“战略对话”，在对中国、朝鲜、伊朗、阿富汗和其他国家的政策上将展开“更加密切的合作”。

他说，世界各国都看到了中国是如何反应的。

处在这场争端旋涡之中的，是一片日本称为“尖阁诸岛”、中国称为“钓鱼岛”的无人岛链。这片小小的群岛位于日本南部冲绳县与台湾之间，处于日本控制之中，但中国和台湾都声称拥有其主权。日本方面说，它逮捕和扣留船长是在国内领土实施国内法律，是正确的，而中国方面曾说，日本处罚的是一名位于中国领土内的中国公民，是不正确的。

自9月7日中国船长被拘押后，日本国内的公众反应相比中国显得颇为平静。但是船长被释放的举动激起了对刚上台三个月的菅直人政府强烈的政治批评，对执政党日本民主党（Democratic Party of Japan）处理纷繁复杂的外交事务的能力提出了新的质疑。

因钓鱼岛事件被日本扣留的中国船长在两周后终于被放回中国。日本最大的日报《读卖新闻》（Yomiuri Shimbun）在周六的一篇社论中对释放中国船长的举动进行了严厉的抨击，称其为以修好中日关系为优先的政治决定。文章还说，这是前后矛盾的，因为调查人员曾以该事件的恶劣性质来解释对该船长的逮捕和拘押。

日本检方周五决定释放船长，暂不对其采取进一步的法律行动。负责调查船长的日本冲绳南霸地方检察厅（Naha District Public Prosecutors Office）说，考虑到对日本民众的影响以及未来中日关系，决定释放这位船长。

包括首相菅直人在内的日本政府官员否认检方的决定受到了任何政治影响，但当地媒体说，该释放决定毫无疑问地是受到了国家政府的相关指示。

日本经济新闻社（Nikkei Shimbun）说，首先，检方并没有决定未来中日关系走向的权力。日本每日新闻社（Mainichi Shimbun）在其社论中也持同样观点，称检方将释放中国船长归结于“外交考虑”是很奇怪的，并且与政府认为该事件应依法解决的立场相矛盾。

日本《朝日新闻》（Asahi Shimbun）说，这一定是菅直人政府做出的高级政治决定。该报的社论还说，事件一开始，在决定拘捕船长时，菅直人政府是否预测到了中国可能会有的反应以及如何收场？

社论说，就算日本民主党外交弱点被指出来也毫无办法，应该对此进行反省并严肃地将其当做痛苦的教训。

在日本各报纸媒体纷纷批评的同时，反对党成员也在日本广播公司（NHK）上发表了相同看法。日本最大的反对党自民党干事长石原伸晃（Nobuteru Ishihara）说，东京向其他（与中国）有领土争端的亚洲国家发出了何种信号？他补充道，释放的决定也会使值班的日本海岸警卫队成员感到疑惑，如果中国再次非法进入我们的领海他们应该怎么办？

反对党大家党（Your Party）干事长江田宪司（Kenji Eda）在NHK的Sunday Debate节目中说，我建议日本政府向议会提交一份该事件的录像证据进行讨论。我们必须向世界展示真相，看看中国有多么的不讲道理……不这样做的话我们将不可能重树外交信心。

一些中国专家说，他们认为日本对中国采取了少有的强硬态度，延押了中国船长，这是在美国支持下越来越强硬地对抗中国的更大范围区域形势发展的一部分。

但是他们对中国该如何回应似乎有分歧，有些人提倡对日本采取更强硬的惩罚措施，有些人提倡更加温和的外交政策，尤其是对待领土争端。

中国社会科学院边疆问题专家李国强说，释放船长是中国外交的一次胜利，说明对话是解决这种领土危机的最佳方法。

他说，中国政府的官方抗议及其他行动是成功的，该事件告诉亚洲其他国家，这种行径是会产生后果的。但我不赞同有必要对日本采取更强硬的措施。