In His Visit to Japan, China Leader Seeks Amity

I. Citation:
In His Visit to Japan, China Leader Seeks Amity
The New York Times, May 8th
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/world/asia/08china.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin

II. Summary:
This article is about China and Japan's promise to each other to end the tension and become partners. Hopefully by becoming partners, Japan's fears of China's increasing military and economy will end and with this, the two largest economies of Asia could come together in trade. They have decided to put past wars, and conflicts behind and work on uniting with one another. "As neighbors, and as countries with an enormous influence on Asia and the world, China and Japan have no alternative but to walk the road of peace, friendship and cooperation." This meeting should start the cooperation between Japan and China to strengthen the economic world.

III. Reactions:

A) It relates to the AP World Theme: Interaction Among and Within Major Societies. I think this because China and Japan are "major societies" of Asia trying to work together instead of their regular fighting. If this actually happens, their interaction will affect the whole world positively in economy and trade.

B) China has strongly influenced Japan with its culture, writing system, law, architecture, religion, philosophy, and economic and political interaction. Yet as time went on, Japan and China fought and disagreed with one another until there was . This visit was the first since 1998 when China's previous president, Jiang Zemin, lectured Japanese lawmakers after failing to get a satisfactory apology for Japan's war-time monstrosities.

C) The author of this article is Martin Fackler, whose point of view is unknown. Yet, from his name readers can assume he is a white male and an outsider.

D) There is no evidence of bias in this article and mostly just states the facts on Japan and China's interactions. He does not come across to be Japanese or Chinese and seems to have received his information from news reports and interviews. Also, coming from the New York Times, it could be assumed he is a reporter that lives in America.

E) To gain full knowledge of the issue, readers should hear from citizens in China and Japan. Their opinion would help understand the issue better because they will be directly effected by what their leaders decide to do. Also since the two societies have always been known to hate the other, it would be interesting to see how they will react.

F) I picked and enjoyed this article because it is good to hear that two civilizations are trying to get along with one another and end their history of fighting. I hope that the meeting starts improvement in Asia's economy and trade which would cause a positive change across the globe. Hopefully, the leaders of China and Japan work together to completely finish their societies' disagreement.