Assessment of Hu Jintao's North American Visit

The Straits Times
Sept 23, 2005
Hu shows hard-soft diplomacy in North America
He stresses China's peaceful intent in his trip but draws the line on Taiwan and Tibet
By Chua Chin Hon
China Bureau Chief

BEIJING - A TRIP to the White House, postponed by Hurricane Katrina, scuttled the public relations centrepiece for Chinese President Hu Jintao's first official trip to North America earlier this month.

The Chinese plan was for Mr Hu to use his meeting with President George W. Bush to take his message about China's pursuit of 'peaceful development' directly to the American public and leaders.

The message was to act as a counterweight to the growing talk in America about the so-called 'China threat'.

But the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which preoccupied the Bush administration and knocked Mr Hu's White House visit off the agenda, denied Beijing that much-needed public relations exercise.

Mr Hu pressed on with the remaining legs of his North American trip, and there was no mistaking Beijing's increasingly distinct brand of hard-soft diplomacy - one backed by the country's growing economic prowess and driven by the country's ravenous need for resources.

Combined with a desire to soften the rough edges of China's public image, it's a foreign policy doctrine that has been brought to bear on many of his earlier trips, such as the ones to Australia in late 2003 and Latin America last year.

In his 10-day swing through Canada, Mexico and the United Nations in New York, the Chinese leader stressed time and again China's peaceful
intent.

But on China's 'core interests' like Taiwan or Tibet, Mr Hu had no problems talking the tough talk and backing it up with real action.

'China will unswervingly keep to the path of peaceful development and continue to hold high the banner of peace, development and cooperation,' he told world leaders last week at the UN summit marking the 60th anniversary of the world body.

He offered the world's poorest countries tariff-free trade, debt relief, job training and US$10 billion (S$17 billion) in cheap loans.

This grand gesture to mark Beijing's move from a recipient of aid to a donor country, however, came with a diplomatic catch.

The offers were excluded from a dozen states which recognise Taiwan instead of China, among them some of the poorest countries in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

In Canada, Mr Hu elevated bilateral ties to the level of 'strategic partnership' - clearly with an eye on Canadian oil reserves, the second largest in the world after Saudi Arabia - and vowed to double trade between the two countries by 2010.

But he also warned in no uncertain terms that China would not compromise on the Taiwan issue despite its massive energy needs.

'There have been some noises, discordant noises, on the question of Taiwan coming from within Canada,' the Chinese leader told a press conference, referring to attempts by a Canadian parliamentarian to pass a Bill that would make it easier for Taiwanese leaders to visit.

He added: 'We hope that this question can be appropriately addressed so as not to undermine the political foundation of China-Canada relations.'

China's worry is that Canada, a major Western country, would set off a 'domino effect' should it pass Bills more sympathetic to Taiwan, said Associate Professor Jiang Wenran of the University of Alberta in Canada.

He told The Straits Times: 'Hu Jintao responded diplomatically on questions about human rights.

'But he wasn't diplomatic at all about Taiwan or Tibet...Taiwan is the bottomline issue and it's always on their radar.'

Talk of a second visit to the United States later this year has not been confirmed.

In the meantime, Chinese analysts contend that Beijing should try not to score more 'own goals' and provide ammunition to China-bashers.

Japanese High Court: Koizumi's Yasukuni visit illegal

NYT, October 1, 2005

Japanese Court Rules Premier's Visits to War Shrine Illegal
By MARTIN FACKLER

TOKYO, Sept. 30 - A Japanese court on Friday handed a rare victory to opponents of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to a war shrine, ruling that the visits violated Japan's constitutional separation of religion and the state.

Experts said the ruling by the Osaka High Court probably would not force the Japanese prime minister to stop visiting the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan's war dead, including those hanged for criminal conduct during World War II. But they called it a symbolic victory for critics here and elsewhere, who regard the visits as a measure of Japan's lack of contrition for wartime atrocities.

"This will strengthen Koizumi's opponents," said Hiroshi Nakanishi, a professor of international politics at Kyoto University. "More people will be encouraged to speak out against the visits."

Mr. Koizumi questioned the ruling but left his intentions about future visits unclear.

There was no immediate reaction from either China or South Korea, the most vociferous objectors to Mr. Koizumi's visits to the shrine, as well as to Japanese history textbooks that critics say underplay atrocities Japan committed during the war.

This is the second time a Japanese court has ruled against the visits while courts have rejected eight other cases, including a ruling Thursday by the Tokyo High Court dismissing a civil suit. Plaintiffs in that suit said they would appeal to Japan's Supreme Court.

The rest of the article

EAC-JSAC Alberta 2005 Conference

See program details here

Univ. of Alberta's new president

Watch or read the insperational installation speech by Dr. Indira Samarasekera.

Pantagon revises nuclear strike plan

The Pentagon has drafted a revised doctrine for the use of nuclear weapons that envisions commanders requesting presidential approval to use them to preempt an attack by a nation or a terrorist group using weapons of mass destruction. The draft also includes the option of using nuclear arms to destroy known enemy stockpiles of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.
Read Washington Post report
Read the Pentagon Report [PDF]
The North Korean reaction

China's Leader, Ex-Rival at Side, Solidifies Power

By Joseph Khan of The New York Times, September 25, 2005, Read article

Japan blind to a dark past or provoked by China?

Russell Skelton of The Age returns to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine to find a nation still denying its wartime brutality. Read article
Yoichi Funabashi of Asahi Shimbun analyzes Koizumi's election victory. Read article

Martin Wolf on China's rise

From The Financial Times, Sept. 19, 2005

Iran nuclear dispute could split world community

Non-aligned nations' support for Tehran's right pits them against the West, writes Dilio Hiro in YaleGlobal ONLINE.

World Bank rediscovers inequality

Analysis by BBC
When the World Bank's new president, Paul Wolfowitz, presides over his first annual meeting, he will be confronted with a radical new report from his own organisation that sees ending inequality as a key to reducing poverty.
Read report

China's Canadian gateway

Commentary by Paul Evans in The Globe & Mail, Sept. 23, 2005.

The Brookings Institution: China's Emergence

One day conference to launch its China Initiative
Sept. 20, 2005
Watch the conference online (require Windows Media Player)

China gets advice from the US

Pacific Perspectives with TOM PLATE

Debate on Iraq: Galloway vs. Hitchens

British MP George Galloway vs. author Christopher Hitchens
A debate on the Iraq war
Watch the debate here

Quagmire in Iraq and oil supply

Asia Times
The failed mission to capture Iraqi oil
By Michael T Klare Sep 22, 2005
It has long been an article of faith among America's senior policymakers - Democrats and Republicans alike - that military force is an effective tool for ensuring control over foreign sources of oil. Read article
Blood for no oil by Tom Engelhardt Read article

China will invest more abroad

China’s Outward Direct Investment Set to Rise

Outward direct investment (ODI) from the People’s Republic of China is set to rise in the years ahead as Chinese companies respond to the government’s policy of encouraging firms to “Go Global”, according to a report released today in Vancouver and Beijing entitled China Goes Global.
New release
Download report

EAC-JSAC Alberta 2005 Conference Program

Japan Studies Association of Canada

East Asian Council of Canadian Asian Studies Association

EAC-JSAC 2005 ALBERTA CONFERENCE PROGRAM

Connections & Identities in East Asia and Beyond

All conference activities & lunches are in Telus Centre at Univ. of Alberta, 111 St. & 87 Ave.

Thursday, Sept. 29, 2005

4:00-6:00 pm Registration, Telus Centre

7:30-9:30 pm Reception, Telus Centre

Friday, Sept. 30, 2005

7:30-8:30 am Registration / Morning coffee

8:30-9:00 am OPENING CEREMONY (Rm. 217-219)

Dr. Satoshi Ikeda, EAC-JSAC 05 Conference Co-Chair, MC

Dr. Rolf Mirus, Acting Vice-Provost & Associate Vice-President (International), Univ. of Alberta

Dr. O. P. Dwivedi, President, CASA

Dr. Fumiko Ikawa-Smith, President, JSAC

9:00-10:15 am PLENARY SESSION I: (Rm. 217-219)

Sixty Years Anniversary of World War II:

History, Identity, Nationalism & Reconciliation

Chair: Dr. Charles Burton, Brock Univ.

Stephen Doust, Canadian Embassy in Tokyo—The Changing Japanese Dynamic and its Implications

Kimie Hara, Univ. of Waterloo—Japan and the “Unresolved Problems” in East Asia

Satoshi Ikeda, Univ. of Alberta— Between Malign Oblivion and Learned Ignorance: Japanese “Management” of War Crime Memories

10:15-10:30 am Coffee break

10:30-12:00 am BREAKOUT SESSIONS I

Panel A Roundtable - Promoting East Asian Studies: Perspectives from Chairpersons (Rm. 217)

Chair: Peter Nosco, Chair, Dept. of Asian Studies, UBC

Janice Brown, Chair, Dept. of East Asian Studies, Univ. of Alberta

X. Jie Yang, Chair, Dept. of Germanic, Slavic, and East Asian Studies, Univ. of Calgary

Jan Walls, Director, David Lam Centre, Simon Fraser Univ.

Cody Poulton, Chair, Dept. of Pacific & Asian Studies

Univ. of Victoria

Panel B Chinese/Canadian Adoptive Kinship:

Cultural, Legal, and Historical (Rm. 219)

Chair: Sara Dorow, Univ. of Alberta

Ouellette Françoise-Romaine, Université du Québec—Chinese/Canadian Adoption and the Increasing Openness of Adoption Files

Xiaobei Chen, Univ. of Victoria—Chinese Orphans, Canadian Missionaries and Adoptive Parents: Cross-Border Love (Kua Guojie De Ai) in Historical Perspective

Sara Dorow, Univ. of Alberta—“Being Chinese”: Adoptive Families as Immigrant Families?

Panel C Food Culture and the Food Industry in Japan (Rm. 131)

Chair: Carin Holroyd, Asia Pacific Foundation

Matsubara, Toyohiko, Ritsumeikan—Environment-friendly agriculture and producer-consumer network in Japan

Joe Kess and Yuko Igarashi, Univ. of Victoria— Food Fight! Change and challenge in Japan's culinary culture

Yuko Igarashi and Joe Kess—Univ. of Victoria—A Not so-Dry Economy

12:00-1: 30pm Lunch sponsored by Faculty of Arts (Rm. 140)

WELCOME:

Dr. Sheree Kwong See, Associate Dean, Faculty of Arts, Univ. of Alberta

KEYNOTE:

Mark Seldon, Binghamton University,

The Future of East Asian Studies: Regional
and Global Perspectives

BOOK LAUNCH:

Why Japan Matters edited by Joe Kess and Helen Lansdowne

Magnolia: Stories of Taiwanese Women by Tzeng Ching-wen, and translated by Lois Stanford and Jenn-Shann Lin

1:30-3:00 pm BREAKOUT SESSIONS II

Panel D Roundtable - Teaching about Contemporary China:

Issues, Dilemmas, and Perspectives (Rm. 217)

Chair: Ken Foster, UBC

Timothy Cheek, UBC

Ellen Judd, Univ. of Manitoba

Feng Xu, Univ. of Victoria

Panel E Popular Culture, Identity & Nationalism (Rm. 219)

Chair: Joe Kess, Univ. of Victoria

Cathy Kmita, York Univ.—The Mongolian Dance Andai: Trading Dance for Identity

Xu Wu, Univ. of Alberta—Crying Wedding and Dancing Funeral: Folk Rituals as Ethnic Identities in Contemporary West Hubei

Mark Driscoll, Univ. of North Carolina—The Two Freeters of Contemporary Japan: The Fateful Marriage of Neoliberalism and Neonationalism

Panel F Health Care in East Asia (Rm. 131)

Chair: Jim Tiessen, McMaster Univ.

Wei-Ching Chang and Marie-Laure Baudet,, Univ. of Alberta—The Tao of Feminism and Health Care in Taiwan

Taikun Ji, Univ. of Alberta—HealthCcare and Deepening Rural Crisis in China.

Jim Tiessen, McMaster Univ. —Hospital Competition and Quality in Japan

3:00-3:30 pm Networking break

3:30-5:00 pm BREAKOUT SESSIONS III

Panel G Roundtable – East Asian Energy Security

Chair: Tom Waldichuk, Thompson Rivers Univ.

Simon Nantais, Univ. of Ottawa—Foreign policy, National Identity:Canadian Newspapers During the Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1941

Iain Grant, Dalhousie Univ.— The Puzzling Case of the Sino-Canadian Oil Relationship

Simin Yu, Univ. of Alberta—Sino-Japanese Competition for Energy

Panel H Transformations in Chinese Identities: Intellectuals, Students, and Minorities in the Modern Period (Rm. 219)

Chair: Timothy Cheek, UBC

Timothy Cheek, UBC—Intellectual Identities: What Makes a 'Chinese Intellectual' Chinese?

David Luesink, UBC—Transformation in regional identities: Cheeloo Univ. and St. John's Univ. medical students/graduates as agents of regional and national identity.

Jack Hayes, UBC—Market and Ethnic Identities: Roads, the Environment, and Minority Identities in Northern Sichuan

Ryan Dunch, Univ. of Alberta— An Overview of Missionary Books in Late Qing China (1811-1911)

Panel I The borderless world: changing perspectives on language and culture (Rm. 131)

Chair: Tsuneko Iwai, McMaster Univ.

Tsuneko Iwai, McMaster Univ.—Globalization and the changing patterns of self-construals: an exploratory study of the Japanese students abroad

Noriko Yabuki-Soh, York Univ.—Re-examining Japaneseness: Nihonjinron and cross-cultural manuals

Kaori Yoshida UBC—Animation and Otherness: Asia-ness and Orientalism in the Japanese Anime World

Naofumi Tatsumi, Purdue University—Cross-cultural understanding: Proposing an intercultural communication course with emphasis on East Asia

6:00-8:30 pm Conference Dinner, Faculty Club

KEYNOTES:

Professor Takeshi Hamashita, Kyoto Univesity,

Changing Pattern of Sino-centric Regional Order in East Asia 1805-2005

Saturday, October 1, 2005

8:00-8:30 am Registration / Morning coffee

8:30-10:00 am BREAKOUT SESSIONS IV

Panel J Trade and Investment, and sustainable growth in Asia (Rm. 217)

Chair: Teri Ursacki-Bryant, Univ. of Calgary

Carin Holroyd, Asia Pacific Foundation—Rediscovering Japan: An Examination of British Columbia's Trade and Investment Initiative for Asia

Monir Hossain Moni, Waseda Univ.— Japanese FDI in South Asia: Limits and Possibilities

Tom Waldichuk, Thompson Rivers Univ.— Actor Networks and the Sustainability of Horticulture on Kujukuri Plain,
Chiba Prefecture, Japan

Panel K Constructing Identities in War and Peace--Japan and East Asia in the Long Twentieth Century (Rm. 219)

Chair: Bill Sewell, Saint Mary’s Univ.

Shinji Takagaki, Univ. of Toronto at Mississauga—War and the Meiji Nation-Building Enterprise
Yu Chang, Univ. of Toronto— Peacetime Reflections Upon War and East Asian Identities
Owen Griffiths, Mount Allison Univ.— Public Imagery of War, the Nation, and Historian's Responsibilities
Bill Sewell, Saint Mary’s Univ.—Manchuria in Post-Postwar Northeast Asia

Panel L Tea and Chopsticks: Cultural Awareness as an Aid to Second Language Learning (Rm. 214)

Chair: Lloyd Sciban, Univ. of Calgary

Cai Wei and Shu-ning Sciban Univ. of Calgary—What Has Been Taught about Chinese Language and Culture in Chinese Language Textbooks?

X. Jie Yang, Univ. of Calgary—Designing an On-line Database for Language Textbooks

Mayumi Hoshi, Univ. of Alberta—Is There Such a Thing as a “Best” Textbook?

Lloyd Sciban, Univ. of Calgary—Defining Culture within Language Learning

Panel M Languages Initiative –

East Asian Languages in Alberta schools (Rm. 216)

Chair: Kimie Hara, Univ. of Waterloo

John Sokolowski, Alberta Education—Overview of Languages Initiative

Jincheng Huang, Alberta Education—Chinese Language and Culture Education in Alberta

Yoko Udagawa, Alberta Education—Japanese Language and Culture Education in Alberta

10:00-10:30 Networking break

10:30-12:00 BREAKOUT SESSIONS V

Panel N Workshop - Introduction to Japan Studies Databases and a Chinese Courseware (Rm. 217)

This workshop is partially sponsored by the NCC

Tadanobu Suzuki, Librarian, Univ. of Victoria

Tomoko Goto, Japanese Librarian, UBC Asian Library

Laifong Leung & Jingjun Ha, Univ. of Alberta— Interative Chinese Tutor: A New Multimedia Courseware

Panel O Cultural Expression and Representation (Rm. 219)

Chair: Jennifer Jay, Univ. of Alberta

Brian Pendleton, Langara College—Space: The Final Frontier: Ma and the Mathematics of Japanese Garden Design

Naohiro Nakamura, Queen’s Univ.—The Change of Cultural Representation of the Ainu in Museum Exhibition.

Anne Wu, Univ. of Toronto—Cooking as Transnational Practices

Panel P Identity Formation & Historical Memory (Rm. 214)

Chair: Mark Driscoll, Univ. of North Carolina

Yuko Shibata, UBC—Under the Asian Face: In/Visible Canadians

Hiroko Noro, Univ. of Victoria—Hapa Japanese Canadian Identity: An Exploratory Study of Identity Formation of Interracial Japanese Canadian Children

Scott Simon, Univ. of Ottawa—From Savages to Soldiers: Truku Memories of Japanese Formosa

John Harding, Univ. of Lethbridge – Contested Identities and Buddhism in Modern Japan: A Shikoku Case Study of Pilgrimage and Persecution

Panel Q Emerging China and its neighbors (Rm.216)

Chair: Ryan Dunch, Univ. of Alberta

Guoguang Wu, Univ. of Victoria— Testing China's Peaceful Rise: Taiwan, Energy, and Human Rights Issues

Saarah Shvji, Univ. of Alberta—China-Kazakasthan Relations

Zachary Devereaux, Ryerson Univ.— Chinese News Coverage of North Korea in the New Media Context

12:00-1:30 pm Lunch Sponsored by School of Business (Rm. 140)

WELCOME:

Dr. Michael Percy, Dean, School of Business, Univ. of Alberta

KEYNOTE:

Mr. Jeff Kucharski, former Consul for Canada to Nagoya, Japan

The New Japan in an Asian Context

EAC Business Meeting (Rm. 217)

1:30-3:00 pm BREAKOUT SESSIONS VI

Panel R Development of Japanese Corporations (Rm. 217)

Chair: Dick Beason, Univ. of Alberta

Paul Parker, Univ. of Waterloo—Connections within and Beyond Japan’s Photovoltaic Industry:Industrial Development, National Solar Energy Strategies and Global Exports

David Edgington, UBC and Roger Hayter, Simon Fraser Univ.—Japanese Electronics Firms in Southeast Asia and China: Patterns of Bargaining, Cultural Learning and Embeddedness

Teri Ursacki-Bryant, Univ. of Calgary—Anti-Takeover Defenses and the Vitality of Japanese Corporations

Panel S Identities for Women in Pre-modern Japan (Rm. 219)

Chair: Sonja Arntzen, Univ. of Toronto

Caitilin Griffiths, Univ. of Toronto—Itinerant Jishu Nuns: Members of a Mixed Gender Religious Community

Gergana Ivanova, Univ. of Toronto—Sei Shōnagon’s Makura no Sōshi: In Search for the Original Text

Lianne Zwarenstein, Univ. of Toronto—Working Women: the Professional Identities of Kamakura Female Authors

Discussant: Christina Laffin, UBC

Panel T Education and Activism in Japanese North America (Rm. 214)

Chair: Greg Robinson, UQAM

Greg Robinson, Université du Québec À Montréal—“Forrest E. LaViolette: Asian North American Studies Pioneer”

John Baick, Western New England College—Franz Boas and the Origins of East Asian Studies in America

Susan Smith, Univ. of Alberta—Toku Shimomura: An Issei Woman during World War II

3:00-3:30 pm Networking break

3:30-5:00 pm PLENARY SESSION II (Rm. 217-219)

New Challenges & Policy Research in Canada-Asia Relations

Chair: Wenran Jiang, Univ. of Alberta

Dr. Yuen Pau Woo, President, Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada

Dr. Charles Burton, Brock University, former academic councilor in the Canadian embassy in Beijing

Mr. Alan Bowman, International Trade Canada

5:00-5:30 pm JSAC Business Meeting

Saturday Evening: Free

Sunday, October 2, 2005

8:30-10:00 am BREAKOUT SESSIONS VII

Panel U Translation: Modern & Pre-modern (Rm. 217)

Chair: Sonja Arntzen, Univ. of Toronto

Shaobo Xie, Univ.of Calgary—Translating Modernity towards Translating China

Kozue Uzawa, Univ. of Lethbridge—Problems of Selecting Appropriate Words in Translating Tanka into English

Panel V Literature & Education in Japan (Rm. 219)

Chair: Fumiko Ikawa-Smith, McGill Univ.

Yoko Riley, Univ. of Calgary—The Poetic Manifestations of Japanese History

Febe Pamonag, Univ. of Alberta—‘Where are the teachers who are to train and help the eager students?’ Tsuda Umeko and Her American and Japanese Supporters for Women’s Education in Meiji Japan

Kumiko Aoki, National Institute of Multimedia Education—Japan, Internationalization of Higher Education (or the Lack of it) in Japan

Panel W Chinese Identities: Culture & Literature (Rm. 214)

Chair: X. Jie Yong, Univ. of Calgary

Tzuhsiu (Beryl) Chiu, Univ. of Alberta— Transcultural Chinese identities

Rui Feng, Univ. of Alberta and Iris Xu, McNally Composite High School—Chinese Identities: Lessons from the Chinese Canadian Experience

Hua Li, UBC—Changing Patterns of the Bildungsroman in Modern Chinese Literature

Jennifer Jay, Univ. of Alberta— Confused Identities in the Chinese Canadian Experience: Last Names First and Paper Sons

10:00-10:15 am Coffee break

10:15-11:45 am BREAKOUT SESSIONS VIII

Panel X Japanese linguistics in Japanese Studies (Rm. 217)

Chair: Kaori Kabata, Univ. of Alberta

Yuki Johnson, Univ. of Toronto—Functions of the Particle Ga in Japanese: Ga as an Object Marker

Kaori Kabata, Univ. of Alberta—Usage Patterns and Mental Representation of Japanese Particles

Kiyoko Toratani, York Univ.—Mimetics (lost) inTtranslation

Panel Y Encounters with the Other: Re-Locating the Intertextual/Transnational in Modern Japanese Literary Texts (Rm. 219)

Chair: Janice Brown, Univ. of Alberta

Brad Ambury, Univ. of Alberta—Transnational Encounters in Modern Fiction

Ania Dymarz, Univ. of Alberta—Kurahashi and Kafka: A Comparative Reading of Textual Worlds

Janice Brown, Univ. of Alberta—Disentangling Lyric and Nation in Modern Japanese Poetry

Panel Z Education in Japan (Rm. 214)

Chair: Yoko Riley, Univ. of Calgary

Lloyd Scaiban and Scott Harrison, Univ. of Calgray—The Japanese Concept of Self in Teaching Japanese as a Second Language

Yoko Udagawa, Gakuin Univ.—Kanji for High School Programs

Mito Takeuchi, Ohio Univ.—Supplemental Education for Foreign Residents in Japan: Challenges of “Multicultural Coexistence

11:45am-12:00 pm Closing Remarks (Rm. 217-219)

Dr. Satoshi Ikeda & Dr. Wenran Jiang

EAC-JSAC 05 Conference Co-Chairs

12:00-1:00 pm Lunch (Rm. 217-219)

NOTES:

1. Please make payments in either check or cash at the registration;

2. Please limit your presentation to 15 minutes;

3. Roundtable should be open and interactive;

4. Every room has a computer with projector for PPP, etc.;

5. Every room has Internet access;

6. There are two computers with Internet access in the main lobby for email;

7. We will distribute your paper or outline if you have copies with you;

8. We will consider the publication of the proceedings after the conference;

9. Please let us know if you have any special requests.

END