The leaders of China and Japan pulled relations between the Asian giants back from the brink at a weekend meeting, but analysts said bitter memories of Japan?s wartime history and rivalry for influence will keep ties fragile.

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi appear to have papered over their countries? worst row in three decades during talks in Jakarta on Saturday, a day after Koizumi made an unusually public apology for Japan?s past atrocities in Asia.

?The leaders? summit went well, in that they were able to hold it. They avoided the worst-case scenario?, said Kiyoshi Takai, a professor at Hokkaido University in northern Japan. ?But China is saying ?match words with action? and that means the discussions will again return to the Yasukuni issue. So what Prime Minister Koizumi decides about that is the key?, he said, referring to the controversial war cemetery shrine in Tokyo.

Japan?s Asahi Shimbun newspaper in an editorial added: ?What seems to have happened is that a band-aid was applied to the wound to stop the bleeding. But the injury itself has not been treated at all. The risks are high that the wound will worsen and that it will open up again at some point.?

During their one-hour meeting, held at the end of a gathering of Asian and African leaders in Jakarta, Hu told Koizumi that remorse expressed for Japan?s wartime past should be translated into action. The Chinese leader said Japan should ?never do anything again that would hurt the feelings of the Chinese people?.

Hu also urged Japan not to support formal independence for self-ruled Taiwan, which Beijing has claimed as its own since their split at the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.

Koizumi used both hands to shake the hand of a stiff and expressionless Hu and told a news conference later that he and Hu agreed to make efforts to develop the bilateral friendship instead of aggravating antagonistic feelings.

The tie that binds

Koizumi did not say if he would stop visiting the shrine which has been the source of much of the friction. ?The differences in their standpoints are still quite large?, said Zhu Feng, director of the International Security Programme at Peking University. ?China still wants Japan to take concrete actions, for example to stop the visits to the shrine.?

Relations with China chilled markedly after Koizumi took office in 2001 and began annual visits to the shrine. He has not visited this year.

Ties between the Asian giants plunged to their worst since relations were normalised in 1972 after three weekends of violent anti-Japanese protests across China, putting at risk economic links worth $212 billion in annual trade.

The demonstrations were sparked by new school history textbooks that critics say sugarcoat Japan?s wartime history and over other irritants, including Tokyo?s campaign for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Around 300 people marched against Japan in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai yesterday in the latest demonstration. Police made two arrests.

Beijing says 35 million Chinese were killed or wounded during Japan?s 1931-45 occupation of much of the country. The People?s Daily, the mouthpiece of China?s Communist Party, said yesterday it was understandable for students and the masses to want to express their emotions after Japanese right-wing forces had hurt their feelings.

But the newspaper added: ?Patriotism requires strong emotions but even more, it requires reason.? China launched a campaign to cool down tempers one day before Koizumi apologised.

Asked about Chinese comments that action was more important than words, Koizumi said on Saturday: ?We have became an economic superpower and not a military state. (We are a) peaceful nation reflecting on the experience of the war.?

Benjamin KANG LIM Masayuki KITANO

DEMOCRATIC ISSUE

<B>Hundreds in HK protest over China law move </B>

■ Protesters marched through central Hong Kong yesterday to denounce what they say is interference by China in the territory?s affairs? Carrying placards, the several hundred protesters marched through the main shopping belt on Hong Kong island chanting: ?Against Beijing?s Parliament interpretation of the law.? China?s Parliament will interpret Hong Kong?s Constitution this week and is expected to rule that the next chief executive will only serve the rest of the term of former leader Tung Chee-hwa, or two years. But many people, especially the city?s lawyers, see Beijing?s move as interfering in the affairs of this former British colony. The organiser of the march, Chong Yiu-kwong, said: ?What Beijing is doing is destroying the rule of law and the high degree of autonomy which it promised Hong Kong.? Beijing promised Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997. The controversy erupted last month after unpopular Hong Kong leader Tung suddenly resigned, citing health reasons. Although the city?s Constitution says any chief executive should serve five years, Beijing has said Tung?s successor will serve just the two years remaining in Tung?s term, until mid-2007. Sources say interim leader Donald Tsang has secured Beijing?s assurance that a China-appointed panel will select him for the post in a limited election on July 10, but Chinese officials want to limit him to a two-year term to test his loyalties. But critics have quickly accused Beijing of trying to bend the Constitution and two people have challenged the decision in court, sparking fears that the July selection might be derailed and result in a political vacuum.