China Agrees to Japanese Airlift

SHANGHAI-China acknowledged Thursday that it was willing to receive disaster relief assistance from Japan’s Self-Defense Forces in what would be the first Japanese military air mission to China since the end of World War II. Word of discussions on military aid between the countries was first reported in Tokyo on Wednesday, when Japanese officials said they had received a request for airlifted assistance from China and were preparing to respond.The Japanese officials said the Chinese request had not been detailed, but China’s greatest need was presumed to be for tents and other emergency shelter materials.In speaking publicly of the talks on aid between the countries for the first time on Thursday, Chinese officials would not say whether Beijing had requested a Japanese airlift or Japan had offered it.“If the Japanese Self-Defense Forces are ready to provide assistance, then the specifics will be discussed by the two countries’ defense departments,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Qin Gang, said in a briefing.The diplomatically vague language reflects the depth of Chinese sensitivity over relations with Japan, given the brutality of Japan’s wartime occupation of China.Relations between the countries were particularly strained this decade when Japan was led by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Mr. Koizumi made a frequent practice of visiting the Yasukuni shrine to Japan’s war dead, which holds the remains of many wartime leaders who were executed as war criminals.Relations have rebounded strongly under the current prime minister, Yasuo Fukuda. This month, China’s president, Hu Jintao, made a five-day trip to Japan, in the first state visit in a decade.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/30/world/asia/30japan.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

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