The Sino-Japanese Exchange Of Security And Protection Sees A Dim Prospect
SU30MK by Andrei Pinkov

[Kanwa news Jan. 27 Tokyo] The source of the Japanese Defence Ministry indicated to the KWIC reporter that this year, Japan and China would not see a bright prospect for their exchange in the area of defence. Due to the impact of the TMD plan and several other issues, it is possible that there will be a very dim prospect in the exchange between these two countries. Even the Japanese Defence Minister indicated to Beijing that he hoped to visit China early this year. However, he has not yet received any formal reply from China.

According to the source, the visit of the high-ranking officials that has been confirmed up to now is only the one by the President of the Defence University of China, Xing Shi- Zhong, to Japan. The specific date of visit is still under discussion, but it has been confirmed to be around April. In addition, a Chinese military physician is working on his research of colon bacillus at the Defence Medical University of Japan.

Referring to the naval exchange between Japan and China, the source of the Japanese Defence Ministry indicated that it would not be possible to realize the exchange of visits by the auxiliary vessels or warships of the two countries this year. In fact, this exchange program has been discussed in 1997. According to the source, however, the high-ranking officials of the defence authorities of these two countries will hold at least one meeting this year for the face-to-face exchange of their views. It is estimated that at the meeting, China will bring up the issues such as Japan’s TMD development and its reconnaissance satellite launch. Japan has always felt that its above movements are not beyond the principle of self-defence.

The Japanese defence officials have recently expressed their “ close concern ” about China’ s production of large destroyers and its import of Russia’ s “ Modern ” destroyers, SU30MK, and advanced technology of aviation engine. The Japanese initially believe that this movement of China may go beyond the goal of realizing the national defence modernization. For this reason, the source of the Japanese Defence Ministry felt it necessary to express Japan’ s “ concern ” to China in the future exchange activities ( Edited by Satoko Tomiyama ).