China sees steady Japan ties steady post-Fukuda

By Chris Buckley

BEIJING (Reuters) - China and Japan will stay focused on improving long-strained ties after the departure of Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, even if conservative Taro Aso succeeds him, Chinese experts said on Tuesday.

Experts close to Beijing policy-makers said Fukuda was unusually committed to better ties between the two neighbouring Asian powers, but under his likely successors relations were unlikely to trigger the bitter quarrels over wartime history, territory and influence of recent years.

"The general trend of improving relations will continue no matter who takes over, because the shared interests of both countries have become too important for any leader to ignore," said Qin Yaqing, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University who has advised officials on policy towards Tokyo.

"There are still many specific problems between the two sides. Fukuda's successor may not have the same ideas about solving them, but I think the focus will remain on solving them."

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu avoided directly commenting on Fukuda's resignation, but said he had made an "important contribution" to improving relations.

"We're willing to continue, together with Japan, to make an effort to this end," Jiang told a news briefing.

China replaced the United States as Japan's top trade partner in 2007, with two-way trade totalling $236.6 billion (132.3 billion pounds).

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said President George W. Bush had been "very pleased" to work with Fukuda.

"The president said he fondly recalled the G8 summit and noted how well Prime Minister Fukuda chaired that meeting and he looks forward to working with the next prime minister once that is settled in Japan," Perino told reporters.

WARY OF CHINA

The favourite to succeed Fukuda is Aso, a ruling Liberal Democratic Party official and former foreign minister who has been wary of China and wants Japan to wield more regional clout.

But Aso has said he will not visit the Yasukuni Shrine, a memorial to Japan's war dead seen by many in Asia as a symbol of the country's past military aggression. Japan invaded and occupied parts of China from 1931-45.

Yet Aso has angered South and North Korea for comments seen there as justifying Japan's colonial rule over the peninsula.

He may upset North Korea, whose nuclear ambitions have deeply unsettled Japan, by pushing harder on human rights as part of his "values diplomacy", said Kim Sung-han, a Korea University professor of international relations in Seoul.

"If he still believes in this concept, he is likely to provoke North Korea by raising the issue of human rights," Kim said.