An influential Japanese ruling party official has renewed Japan's call for building a crisis management system between Japanese and Chinese defense officials in order to help contain military tension between the two countries.

Gen Nakatani, deputy secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, said Oct. 26 that it will be unwise for the two countries to freeze the whole of their relations only because of the existence of a territorial dispute and differences in their recognition of wartime history.

At the start of a panel discussion in Beijing as part of the security issue dialogue on the first day of the 9th Beijing-Tokyo Forum, Nakatani, a former defense minister, stressed that Japan and China should steadily accumulate achievements in areas where they can cooperate, specifically the response to North Korea's nuclear arms development, and cooperation in the environmental and economic fields.

Representing Japanese panelists for the security dialogue, Nakatani explained the Japanese government's purpose in its nationalization of a group of disputed islands in the East China Sea in September 2012.

Referring to recent controversial moves on the part of China, notably a Chinese military ship's "painting'' a Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force vessel with targeting radar beams, and the appearance of what was believed to be an unmanned Chinese warplane and Chinese submarines' activities in waters near the disputed islands, Nakatani warned that if tension further increases in the area, Japan may have to strengthen its defense policy while considering not only establishing a collective self-defense system but also changing the interpretation of its right to individual self-defense. To prevent such a situation from occurring, Japan and China should build a crisis management mechanism hurriedly, he said.

Representing panelists on the Chinese side, former U.N. Undersecretary-General Chen Jian noted that a major change has emerged in international relations surrounding Japan and China. In these circumstances, he stressed the need for the two countries to newly position themselves in bilateral relations and in relations with the United States.

Chen noted China's concern that Japan may be guarding against China while seeing it as a threat, just like North Korea, as Japan's attitude toward China is changing. Referring to Japan's doubts about an increase in China's military budget in recent years, Chen reaffirmed that the increase in its military spending is an indispensable choice for the Chinese. He warned against the possibility that competition for a military buildup may actually occur between the two countries as Japan regards China as a competitor.

Zhu Chenghu, a major general and former dean of the College of Defense Studies of the National Defense University, mentioned the U.S. military strategy in the Asia-Pacific region as an outside factor that has led to the deterioration of Japan-China relations, and lack of mutual confidence between Japan and China as a regional factor that causes worse relations between the two countries.

Regarding China's military buildup, Zhu said China will not be able to surpass the United States in military strength by any means, adding China rather needs to resolve its internal problems and fulfill its international responsibilities.

Recalling increases in Japan's military budget during the years of high economic growth since the 1960s, Zhu said China is in a situation that is similar to where Japan was in the past, calling on the Japanese to understand China's increased military spending in recent years.

Japan, the United States and other countries concerned urge China to increase its policy transparency in view of the recent increase in its military spending, but these moves may lead the Chinese to misunderstand the situation, Zhu said. A matter of true concern for Japan and the United States must be the envisioned scale of China's military force, according to Zhu. In order to repair the soured relationship between Japan and China, he stressed the need to fully use their economic relations as a lever for reducing tension in political relations.

Zhu also said that the two countries should continue the efforts to forge strategically reciprocal relations, but at the same time, he said that there should be a point of view for the two countries to strengthen heart-to-heart links between their peoples based on their shared cultural background, such as their knowledge of Japanese and Chinese classics.

Rear Admiral Yang Yi, former director of the Institute for Strategic Studies at the People's Liberation Army National Defense University, cited the U.S. return to Asia as an outside factor that works to worsen Sino-Japanese relations. Such a move has come to have a negative influence on the situation in this part of the world, regardless of Washington's real intentions, Yang noted.

Yang also said public opinion in Japan and China is having a strong influence on diplomatic issues between the two countries. This is restraining the two countries' governments in solving their pending problems, he said.

Yang expressed his concern that Japan may stress its need to strengthen relations with the United States as an excuse for breaking with the existing purely defensive military policy framework.

Wu Huaizhong, director for political studies at the Institute of Japanese Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that Japan and China should consider their pending problems from "an intermediate line" between their positions, rather than repeating their mutually parallel arguments.

Wu noted that even if China has no aggressive intent with regard to its military buildup, the countries concerned may doubt whether China intends to surpass the United States in military strength. In this regard, Wu stressed that China also should make efforts to improve the situation.

Wu expressed his doubt about China's tendency in its diplomatic policy to halt every kind of exchange between the two countries whenever a serious problem emerges between Japan and China. He emphasized the need for the two sides to continue steady efforts for crisis management.

In a keynote report during the second half of the security issue dialogue, Yang expressed his fear that efforts by Japan and the United States to strengthen their defense cooperation, such as the ballistic missile defense, or MSD initiative, in response to North Korea's nuclear threat, are rather aimed at neutralizing China's nuclear capability. He stressed that Japan and China should rather work together to counter the nuclear threat from Pyongyang.