China-Japan goodwill summit contends with rifts

China's President Hu Jintao delivers a speech during the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) in Boao, China, April 12, 2008. (REUTERS/Stringer)

TOKYO (Reuters) - Chinese President Hu Jintao vows his five-day visit to Japan from Tuesday will help heal tension through a "warm spring" of goodwill, as the two nations try to bridge rifts over energy resources and security.

He will also be keen to portray his country as a friendly neighbor after years of feuding over Japan's handling of its wartime aggression.

Hu's longest state visit comes as China seeks to calm international protest over its human rights record, particularly over Tibet. The criticism has threatened to overshadow Beijing's bid to use the 2008 Olympics to showcase China as a prosperous and harmonious power.

"I sincerely wish for an ever-lasting warm spring of friendship between the people of China and of Japan," Hu told Japanese reporters in Beijing on Sunday.

China replaced the United States as Japan's top trade partner last year, with two-way trade worth $236.6 billion, up 12 percent from 2006.

With no news as to whether Hu would engage in any panda diplomacy -- offering one of the rare bears as a goodwill gift -- the political climax of the visit is still set to be a summit on Wednesday with Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda.

They hope to unveil a joint blueprint for managing ties in coming years, when China's economy is likely to rival Japan's in size.

However, haggling over the draft of the document continues and it remains unclear whether the avowals of friendship will narrow real disagreements over gas fields, Taiwan and military modernization, or merely bathe them in warm words.

A Japanese Foreign Ministry official said both governments had to deal with citizens wary of the other nation's intentions.

"The people's sentiment in both countries is still fragile, so we have to improve people's feeling through this visit," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

There is certainly much at stake in closer relations for both countries, and for the rest of the world.

TRILLIONS

Japan is the world's second biggest economy, at $4.3 trillion in 2006, and China is the fourth biggest, worth $2.7 trillion and growing quickly.

While China's fast growth offers market opportunities, Beijing's accompanying expansion in diplomatic and military reach has brought broader anxieties in Japan.

"Distrust persists in the political and security spheres," Men Honghua, a strategist at a Chinese Communist Party thinktank, wrote in a party newspaper, the Study Times, on Monday. "Japan worries about China emerging to dominate East Asia."

These worries found an outlet in a quarrel over gas beds beneath the East China Sea while a row over Chinese-made dumplings laced with pesticide that made several people sick also stirred Japanese concerns.

Officials from both sides had earlier raised hopes of a breakthrough in the gas dispute before Hu's visit.

Hu told the Japanese reporters that a plan acceptable to both sides was possible, but swift compromise seems unlikely.

Japan has also raised worries about China's surging defense budget, set at 418 billion yuan ($60 billion) for 2008, up 17.6 percent on 2007, outstripping Japan's defense budget. Foreign critics say China's real military spending is much higher.

Tokyo also wants Chinese backing for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, an issue that in 2005 fuelled anti-Japanese protests in China, where there is deep rancor over Japan's harsh 1931-1945 occupation of much of the country.

Hu appears likely to focus on forward-looking goodwill. The two sides will issue a joint document on ideas to combat climate change and reduce greenhouse gas pollution.

But China has also pressed Japan to spell out again its stance on Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing says must accept reunification.

Tokyo has said it supports "one China" that includes Taiwan, which was a Japanese colony for much of the first half of the 20th century and retains close ties to Japan.

Hu may offer Japan a panda to replace one who died in a Tokyo zoo in April. That panda was a gift during another bout of courtship between the two nations.

"A panda, at least on loan, is not out of the question. Hu certainly wants this trip to be a turning point," said Liu Jiangyong, a Japan expert at Tsinghua University in Beijing. "His main goal this time has to be enhancing mutual confidence, which is still lacking."

(Additional reporting by Linda Sieg; Editing by Matthew Jones)