China's Hu heads to Japan seeking trust and respect

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Japan next week will be about soothing fears, not sealing deals, as Asia's two biggest powers try to look past festering bilateral disputes and tensions over Tibet.

Hu's five-day trip from Tuesday will be his longest state visit to any one country since he became president in 2003, showing how seriously he takes wooing Japan, a key U.S. ally and the world's second-biggest economy, after years of rancor.

It will also be Hu's first outing abroad since anti-Chinese unrest erupted in Tibet in March, stoking international protests against the Beijing Olympics that drew China into rows with Western capitals and ignited Chinese counter-protests.

At this tense time, Hu wants to present his country as a benign power that does not lack Asian friends, said Shi Yinhong, a foreign policy expert at Renmin University in Beijing.

"Hu wants a lasting improvement in relations with Japan to be one of his defining foreign policy achievements," Shi said.

"Neither side wants to return to the old troubles, but getting fully beyond them requires more mutual trust."

Hu and Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda will focus on future cooperation, not Japan's invasion of China before and during World War Two, said a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman.

"President Hu Jintao's visit to Japan has major historic import not only because of issues in history but more importantly because it is a major visit allowing both sides to plan for the future," spokesman Liu Jianchao told Reuters this week.

The two Asian giants have a lot at stake economically in improved ties.

China replaced the United States as Japan's top trade partner last year, with two-way trade totaling $236.6 billion, up 12 percent from 2006. Beijing now wants more Japanese investment and technology, and Japan is hoping to sell more to Chinese consumers as growth in other markets slows.

"China is the key to the stability of the Japanese economy," said Andrew Horvat, a professor at Tokyo Keizai University.

The two leaders hope to issue a document that will "offer a long-term plan for China-Japan relations and formulate some strategic, long-term policies and goals", spokesman Liu said.

Hu will also court Japan with climate change and trade agreements, meetings with business leaders, a speech at a university and tours of regional cities and scenery.

Disputes over rights to East China Sea gas, Beijing's ballooning defense budget, food safety and Tokyo's hopes for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council are also likely to surface. But neither side expects breakthroughs in these areas.

"This visit will symbolize that relations are becoming more normal. It won't solve any substantive issues," said Huang Dahui, an expert on Japan also at Renmin University. "The symbolism of the visit itself will be the main substance."

BUILDING TRUST WITH TABLE TENNIS

The challenge for both sides now is to build on their brittle trust after years of diplomatic cold shoulders and protests brought relations to their lowest point for decades.

In October 2006 the then-new Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, went to Beijing on an "ice-breaking" visit, marking an end to the confrontation that accompanied his predecessor Junichiro Koizumi's visits to the Yasukuni war shrine, seen by Japan's neighbors as a symbol of unrepentant militarist tradition.

In April last year, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao made what he called an "ice-thawing" visit to Japan with conciliatory speeches and a display of his baseball skills.

Abe's successor, Fukuda, visited China in late 2007 and has pleased Beijing by ruling out visiting Yasukuni while in office. "We've also noted that in the past two years the history issue has not upset China-Japan relations and we're pleased with this state of affairs," said spokesman Liu.

Hu instead wants to court a Japanese public worried about his nation's economic ambitions, thirst for energy and resources, military modernization, and lapses in export safety, especially after a row over tainted frozen dumplings.

Poker-faced Hu lacks Wen's popular charms, but he may let his coiffed jet-black hair down a little in Tokyo in a table tennis display with Fukuda.

"Hu wants to give China a human touch," said Jiang Wenran, an expert on the two countries' ties at the University of Alberta in Canada. "Image-wise, it's very important to show the world that China can peacefully manage relations with Japan."

"TOO MUCH AT STAKE"

There will still be room for things to go awry, especially if pro-Tibet self-rule protesters puncture tight security or clash with patriotic Chinese crowds.

China's only previous state visit to Japan in 1998 left lingering bitterness after Tokyo would not give Hu's predecessor, Jiang Zemin, the same apology for wartime misdeeds that it had given South Korea, and Jiang made no secret of his anger.

With patriotic opinion at home now inflamed over Tibetan unrest, Hu faces the challenge of playing tough enough on Tibet and on war memories without alarming Japan.

But China praised Japan for its protection when the Beijing Olympic torch relay recently passed through Nagano with only minor disruptions, and observers expect both sides to keep a tight lid on both protests and complaints this time.

"If there are protests by Tibet independence activists during his visit, I think China's response will be muted," said Shi. "There's too much at stake with Japan to allow outside distractions."

(Additional reporting by Linda Sieg in Tokyo; Editing by John Chalmers)