In his speech at a seminar held by Japan's Association for the Promotion of International Trade on June 2, Wu Jianghao, China's ambassador to Japan, said the Japanese government adding 23 items, including advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment, to its list of regulated exports on May 23 was a "lose-lose" move.

Japan risks not only losing the huge Chinese market, but also ruining its own commercial credit and the future of its semiconductor industry. By limiting its cooperation with China in the semiconductor field, Japan is harming itself as well as China. The US is the only beneficiary of Tokyo's please-Washington decision.

By doing so, Japan is like the person in a Chinese fable that was eaten by a tiger but then as a ghost helped the tiger to find new victims.

Believing that the Japanese semiconductor industry represented by Toshiba Group and Japan's high-end manufacturing plan threatened the technological hegemony and economic interests of the US, Washington launched a "semiconductor war" against Japan's high-tech sector in the 1980s, employing sanctions, threats, and other measures as it is doing against China today.

Washington pressured Tokyo to sign the Semiconductor Agreement in 1986 that enabled the US to reduce Japan's market share and reclaim the world's top position.

For 45 years, Japan has been a firm supporter of China's reform and opening-up process and it has benefited much from China's modernization and prosperity. Today, there are more than 30,000 Japanese enterprises in China that generate business revenue of more than $260 billion a year.

That's why several Japanese business associations and companies expressed their concern to the Japanese government before the controls were officially adopted on May 23.

The Japanese government has on more than one occasion expressed its willingness to propel East Asian integration and the building of an East Asian community, but how can it do that when it is sacrificing East Asia's interests for the benefit of the US?

The US has become the biggest factor affecting the stable development of China-Japan relations. With Japan having been effectively chastened for its temerity in challenging the US' tech hegemony, Tokyo has become a docile puppet of Washington.

Echoing Washington's words, Tokyo has publicly identified China as "the biggest strategic challenge" Japan has ever faced, and as its latest export restrictions show, it is actively cooperating with Washington to contain China.

To be a good neighbor is a much better choice than to be a ghostly ma?tre d' for a tiger.