Rediscover Bandung spirit

In its 2012 Diplomatic Blue Book released on Friday, Japan has shown it is taking a carrot and stick approach to China.

A policy in which coercion is conjoined with reward is not conducive to a relationship built on mutual respect and trust.

The approach laid out in Japan's new blue book on foreign policy could impair the recent progress that has been made in improving relations between China and Japan.

As the annual report on Japan's foreign policy said relations between Japan and China sank to a low after Japanese coast guard vessels collided with a Chinese fishing boat in September 2010. But the two sides have worked very hard to improve the relationship since last year.

Yet even while bilateral relations have been improving, and both sides have made encouraging statements about furthering ties, the relationship remains fragile, because Japan is advancing "substantial diplomacy" aimed at containing China.

Japan has reaffirmed its postwar alliance with the US, which it defines as the cornerstone of its foreign policy, and is building closer military ties with other countries in the region, including Australia, the Philippines and the Republic of Korea.

It has also sought to strengthen its claims to disputed territories by stealth.

Its recent decision to give Japanese names to dozens of uninhabited islands, including the Diaoyu Islands, that are Chinese territory in the East China Sea, has once again soured bilateral relations.

However, there is a silver lining behind the clouds dampening Sino-Japanese relations: the steady progress of economic integration and the continuing diplomatic engagement aimed at finding mutually acceptable solutions to the obstacles in the way of healthy relations.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic ties between the two countries and there will be extensive exchanges aimed at encouraging greater understanding and trust between the two peoples, which can lay the foundation for a healthy relationship between the two close neighbors.

During the first Asia-Africa summit in Bandung, Indonesia in April 1955, then premier Zhou Enlai invited then state minister of Japan Tatsunosuke Takasaki to visit China - a visit that heralded the opening of trade between the two countries and, eventually, to the normalization of diplomatic relations in 1972.

The pledge of Zhou and Takasaki for mutual cooperation - the "Bandung spirit" of peaceful coexistence - remains as valid now as it was 57 years ago.