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excellent job in the planning of the. new biblical signature and other
matters.
--Brian Knowles, Editorial Services
ON THE WORLD SCENE
JAPAN AND CHINA SIGN HISTORIC TREATY China and Japan signed on August
12 an historic treaty of peace and friendship which brought to a
successful climax years of torturous efforts aimed at ending diplo
matic enmities born in war.
In the treaty's most controversial clause, the two countries pledged
their joint opposition to efforts by any state to establish hegemony
in the Asia-Pacific region or elsewhere.
China's insistence on the clause opposing hegemony -- preponderant
influence or authority by a single state -- upset the Soviets who felt
it was aimed at them. But the treaty, signed by the Japanese and Chinese
foreign ministers in Peking's Great Hall of the People, also said the
accord would not affect the relations of either state with other
countries. Japan, seeking to preserve its tenuous relationship with
Moscow as much as possible, had wanted to make clear that the anti
hegemony provision was not directed at any particular nation.
Nevertheless, in Moscow, the Soviet Union angrily denounced the treaty,
saying it conflicted with detente and posed a threat to Asian stability.
The Soviets have long pushed for their own Moscow-dominated, anti-Peking
Asian security arrangement. This now appears dead.
The signing ceremony was watched by Chinese leader Hua Kuo-Feng and
Senior Vice Premier Teng Hsiao-Ping and, on live television, by
millions
in
Japan, including Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda who after
wards predicted extensive development of relations and friendship
between the two countries.
The Prime Minister smiled broadly for nationwide televison and pre
dicted further extensive development of relations between Asia's
biggest economic power and the world's most populous nation.
Commenting on the treaty the two nations in 1972 promised would come
when they established official diplomatic relations, Fukuda said Japan
and China had been linked by a "rope bridge" but now would be linked
by a "steel bridge." He said, "With the bridge being steel, it will
be able to support more traffic crossing in both directions."
Japan's position as China's leading trading partner will certainly be
enhanced by the treaty. The two countries already are doing record
business, with two-way trade of 2.14 billion dollars in the first six
months of this year compared with 1.5 billion in the same period of
1977.
Total bilateral trade this year was expected to reach 5.6 billion
dollars and greatly favors Japan which is supplying large portions of
the plant, equipment and expertise China needs for its modernization
program.
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