Should the City of Niigata, seaside capital of central-north Niigata Prefecture, sell its 15,000 square meter (approximately 160,000 square feet) prime plot of land downtown as requested by the Chinese government?
　　　On November 18, Mayor Akira Shinoda announced a freeze on the property sale plan, but the city – one of Japan’s major port cities inhabited by some 800,000 people – is still reverberating with the aftershock of the announcement. The citizens are well aware that a “freeze” can be lifted whenever the opportunity presents itself, keenly conscious that the Chinese are absolutely enthusiastic about acquiring this prime piece of commercial property nestled in the heart of the city.
　　　The property in question is just 500 meters (1,550 feet) from Niigata’s main train station where the bullet trains come and go every 15 minutes – a grade A plot of land that the city owns, on which a grade school had formerly been located. There, the Chinese government wants to construct its Consulate General – a plan welcomed by the mayor and a majority of city assembly members. This column referred to the problem pertaining to the development plan on November 11. Exactly a week later, Mayor Shinoda made the freeze announcement.
　　　Tang Jiaxuan, former Chinese Foreign Minister and state councilor, has played a vital role in pushing the current development plan. Tang is one of China’s leading experts on Japan. As China’s foreign minister, he made headlines on July 24, 2001 in Beijing by revealing to the Japanese press, following a talk with his Japanese counterpart Makiko Tanaka, that he had “strictly ordered” the Japanese side to forgo a planned visit to the Yasukuni Shrine by Junichiro Koizumi, the then Prime Minister of Japan. The shrine is dedicated to Japan’s war dead, and visits by Japanese leaders have been a source of controversy with China over the years.
　　　Tang currently serves as the chairman on the Chinese side of the New 21st Century Committee for Japan-China Friendship, whose Japanese counterpart is Taizo Nishimuro, formerly chairman of the board of the Tokyo Stock Exchange Group, Inc. and advisor to Toshiba Corporation (which he headed until June 2003). Members of the Japanese committee include Koreshige Anami, former Japanese ambassador to China (2001-2006) and a lead member of the Foreign Ministry’s “China school,” as well as popular newscaster Hiroko Kuniya.
　　　A delegation of the Chinese committee, headed by Tang, paid a five-day official visit to Niigata October 29-November 2, vigorously inspecting the prefecture’s varied spots and facilities, including the planned site for the Consulate General. As the other members of the delegation departed for home on November 2, Tang took an 11:11 a.m. bullet train from Niigata to make his way back to Tokyo. He then paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Naoto Kan at the PM’s official residence at 5 p.m. on the same day. After taking a day off for the “Culture Day” national holiday on November 3, Tang called on Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku for a 30-minute talk, followed by a visit with the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren), a powerful economic advisory body to the prime minister.

China’s Hurried Drive to Buy Up Land Overseas
　　　During the series of talks and lectures held while in Japan, Tang noted that the Senkaku problem involves “delicate matters pertaining to sovereignty” for both Japan and China, warning both sides against “taking any action aimed at changing the existing situation too abruptly.” Tang urged both nations to continue exerting efforts towards a smooth development of the bilateral relationship.” The “development” Tang referred to obviously includes the projected purchase of the choice piece of property in downtown Niigata, as well as the consummation of another of China’s plans in Japan – that of building a new Chinatown in another similarly prime urban center in Niigata City.
　　　Five years ago, China managed to obtain a lease on the ice-free port of Rajin, North Korea’s northernmost port, gaining direct and free access to the Sea of Japan for the first time. Niigata – just across the Sea of Japan from Rajin – promises to become a vital geopolitical stronghold for China. A rich stock of methane hydrate, regarded as an important source of next generation energy, lies hidden in the seabed off Niigata. Meanwhile, heavy snowfalls in the mountainous prefecture provide rich and tasty water used for ages to brew the exquisite sake rice wine for which Niigata has historically been known across the nation. Taking geopolitics and natural resources into consideration, one can easily see why China finds Niigata ever so appealing.
　　　Needless to say, promotion of closer ties with China can create the favorable effect of economically benefitting any country and/or any locale, especially when it is hard-pressed. That is why the whole of Niigata Prefecture has over the years been endeavoring to strengthen economic ties with fast-growing China. Remarks Kenji Hashida, a Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) member of the Niigata city assembly:
　　　“When I was Speaker of the city assembly, we vigorously appealed to the Chinese government to open the Chinese Consul General in our city. I believe everybody in Niigata prefecture was for it then, including Diet members Makiko Tanaka and her husband Naoki Tanaka who made approaches to the Chinese side through political channels. It was all because we had great expectations that promotion of interchanges with China would lead to the activation of the local economy.”
　　　Comments Yukio Sato, another LDP member of the city assembly:
　　　“The plan to sell the land on which the grade school stood has turned into a big controversy now. However, the transaction actually was eagerly pushed by the Japanese side, namely the mayor and his entourage. They worked on us, too, by inviting us members of the city assembly to several dinners and meetings to lay down the groundwork for the proposed sale – so much so that I felt it was already a done deal then.”
　　　China’s strategic need to build a stronghold in Niigata must certainly be quite strong, but what inevitably comes to the fore is the sheer extent of efforts made by the people of Niigata who worked hard on the Chinese side in order to obtain the Consul General project. Pointing out that the sale of the land now poses a big question as it belongs to the city, Hashida argues that there would be no problem if privately-owned land were to be sold to China – or to any other countries for that matter.
　　　In many countries around the world, including Japan, it is of course legally impossible to block private business transactions. Economic activities know no bounds today, rapidly expanding across the globe. That is why there have been a host of cases in which Chinese money bought up land, cultivated fields, mountains and forests, as well as mines not only in Japan but also in various other nations of the world. In fact, Japanese mountains and hills have fallen prey to Chinese capital without restriction precisely because Japanese law is not properly equipped to keep up with these rapid developments.
　　　One cannot help wondering why China is rushing to acquire land around the world with so much vigor while it remains appallingly adamant about not allowing foreigners or foreign governments to buy one square centimeter of its own land at home. As a general rule, it would hardly be commendable to sell land to foreigners rashly. Furthermore, one should be particularly cautious when it comes to selling land to China, which plainly refuses to reciprocate. Remarks Kaoru Sasaki, a city assembly member who belongs to the conservative Niigata Club:
　　　“That Niigata has endeavored for years to attract the Chinese Consul General should be appreciated for what it is worth. However, once a prime piece of land, situated right in the heart of the city, is sold, the people in Niigata should realize they no longer will have free access to it. The premises belonging to an embassy – or a consul general – of a particular nation are treated as the sovereign territory of that nation. I believe we should seriously ponder over the question of whether an expansive, first-rate space in the heart of our city should be treated that way.”

Unequal Relationship
　　　An embassy, or a consulate, is opened anywhere around the world under the principle of reciprocity, which entitles China to establish in Japan the same number of consuls general Japan has in China. However, what has actually developed can hardly be called “reciprocal” because China honors the spirit of equality only in terms of the number of diplomatic establishments.
　　　In addition to its embassy in Beijing, Japan maintains six consuls general in China – Shanghai, Guangzhou (capital of Guangdong Province), Shenyang (Liaoning), Chongqing (Shichuan), Qingdao (Shandong), and Hong Kong. However, none of them stands on land purchased from the Chinese government – for the reasons already referred to. In short, the Chinese government has no intention whatsoever of selling land of China’s own – not only to Japan but to any other country as well.
　　　And yet, China tries aggressively to acquire land, as evidenced by the case in Niigata. Asked if Japan is obliged to maintain such an unequal relationship with any other nation, the Foreign Ministry typically replied it could not comment on “specific cases.”
　　　At least one thing has become clear, however: all of the Japanese diplomatic establishments in China are rented. Meanwhile, not all foreign diplomatic establishments in Japan are owned by foreign governments, which is obvious from a dispute between Japan and the United States in 2007 involving the rent the U.S. embassy had allegedly owed the Japanese government since 1998. Similarly, the U.S. consul general in Naha, Okinawa, constitutes rental property under private ownership.
　　　Even so, on what grounds can the idea entertained by Niigata City be justified – that of selling its select land downtown? In its explanations to its citizens, the Niigata City side has only this much to say:
　　　“Elsewhere around the world, China has built its diplomatic establishments on property it has purchased. This is the usual Chinese practice that we must honor.”
　　　That may probably be the Chinese practice, but then China is not committed to practicing what it preaches – reciprocity – as it persistently attempts to acquire land abroad while being dead set on refusing to sell even a square centimeter of land at home. The posture demonstrated by Niigata City – that it will hear what China has to say on a provisional basis and subsequently accommodate it fully – is tantamount to an act of subjugation totally neglectful of the prefectural interests, as well as Japan’s national interests. This, I believe, is something that the good people of Niigata will indeed find totally unacceptable.

(Translated from “Renaissance Japan” column No. 438 in the December 2 issue of The Weekly Shincho)