MrsAssKissinger wrote:Did any of yall see The River's Edge? Where Cripsin Glover says, 'It's people like you who are sending this country down the drain. Why do you think it is Russia is gearing up to kick our ass?' Well substitute Japan and China for America and Russia and, uh, you get what I mean...
Kick Our Ass
Japan and China are at their lowest ebb in years. The two countries are locked in disputes over World War II history, natural gas exploration and now a bold incursion by a Chinese nuclear submarine.
Japan's military conquest of China in the 1930s and '40s and what the Chinese see as Tokyo's reluctance to atone for its aggression have gnawed for decades at Chinese sensitivities. Japan, in turn, accuses Beijing of using history to browbeat Tokyo into providing aid and political concessions.
The countries have also squabbled over territory and natural resources. Both, for instance, claim a cluster of Japan-controled East China Sea islands, called the Senkakus in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese. The two are also sparring over Chinese exploration of natural gas fields near Okinawa that Japan claims could infringe on its exclusive economic zone, and they have competing plans for an oil pipeline from Siberia to East Asia.
The flare-ups illustrate an increasingly competitive relationship.
The intrusion prompted calls for greater military vigilance in Tokyo, and joined a long list of incidents that have soured the atmosphere between China and Japan.
Koizumi has angered China repeatedly since 2001, when he began making annual visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, a war memorial that Beijing and other critics deride as a glorification of Tokyo's military aggressions.
The anger overflowed dramatically in August, when rowdy Chinese fans booed, spat and burned Japanese flags when the Japanese soccer team visited for the Asian Cup tournament.
