• Chinese and Japanese relations : New pope Benedictus XVI Chinese and Japanese relations : New pope Benedictus XVI From Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo April 18, 2005 Sunday’s talks in Beijing between Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura and his Chinese counterpart, Li
• Chinese and Japanese relations : New pope Benedictus XVI
Chinese and Japanese relations : New pope Benedictus XVI
From Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo April 18, 2005
Sunday’s talks in Beijing between Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura and his Chinese counterpart, Li Zhaoxing, failed to bridge the widening gulf of mistrust between the two countries.
As China shifted to a market economy, the Communist Party raised the banner of economic development and nationalism as the new national credo to replace socialist ideology.
Part of the preamble to the implementation guidance for patriotic education announced in 1994 by the party says patriotism is the banner to mobilize, inspire and unite the people and a common pillar for the people.
The Chinese government seems to be bound by its own campaign to spur a new sense of nationalism, and thus finds it difficult to denounce the destructive acts by anti-Japanese demonstrations or offer an apology to Japan for them.
But that doesn’t qualify as behavior befitting a country ruled by law. In this respect, Li’s statement that the Chinese government will deal with the situation according to law is worth paying attention to.
From the Corriere della Sera, Milan, Italy Apr. 20, 2005
The Church is relying on a 78-year-old man with the face of a child, a shy person with a great energy and culture. He will be a loved and feared Pope, intellectual but with a shepherd’s ways. It never happened that a Pope made his speech to the world 24 hours before his election, during the Conclave’s opening mass. In those words addressed to the other cardinals, there is a real pontificate’s program, that can be summarized as “Truth and charity.”
In the wake of his predecessor, (he will continue) with the humble sweetness of his gestures and with severity. But he will run the Church with great determination and many surprises. He promised a reform of the Church.
Benedict XVI described himself as “simple, humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord.”
He will be loved, for his limpid way of dealing, for his cherub eyes, for the intellectual beauty of his language. He’s able to talk to people.
