Chinese researchers yesterday brushed aside a Japanese official's remarks that the country's rapid economic growth would lead to increased nationalism.

 

Deputy Press Secretary at the Japanese Foreign Ministry, Tomohiko Taniguchi, said on Tuesday: "the more rapid the growth is, the more dangerous I think it is going to be for nationalism to play a role or change the course of the ... nation.

 

"I would call on the Beijing government to well manage the equilibrium of the Chinese psyche, because the Chinese people are experiencing the most rapid ... change in their 2,000-year history," he said at a regional cultural conference in Hong Kong.

 

However, Jiang Lifeng, director of Institute of Japanese Studies of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said it was a "baseless" assumption.

 

"In history, the Western countries had expanded as their economies grew," Jiang said.

 

"However, it doesn't necessarily mean that Chinese economy rapid growth will lead to nationalism. The assumption is an old way of thinking."

 

Huang Dahui, director of East Asia Research Center of Renmin University of China, said that such an assumption may be based on Japan's own experience of rising nationalism during 1960s and 1970s when its economy was developing rapidly.

 

"It is very inappropriate for a Japanese governmental official to make such remarks when Sino-Japan relationship is warming up," Huang said, referring to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's "ice-breaking" visit to China late last year and Premier Wen Jiabao's "ice-melting" journey to Japan this April.

 

Taniguchi also said at the conference that Japan's relationship with China is "better than ever" and both countries are working to ensure ties remained stable.

 

"We are optimistic that the bilateral relationship is going to be stabilized at least for the time being," he said.

 

Huang added: "With the economy developing, the Chinese people indeed are more and more self-confident.

 

"We can't deny that a very small portion of people behaved nationalistically. However, the number of those people is so small that it can't represent the general attitude of Chinese people toward Japan."

 

Both Jiang and Huang said Japan should keep an eye more on its own right-wing nationalists.

 

"Responding to some Japanese right-wing politicians' denial of history and visits to Yasukuni Shrine, a small number of Chinese took vehement action," Huang said, criticizing Japanese former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi's six visits to Yasukuni Shrine, which honors 14 Class-A World War II war criminals.

 

(China Daily July 26, 2007)