The multi-level interaction between Chinese and Japanese party and government has recently received extensive attention from Japanese media. Japanese Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress Zhao Leji met with the Deputy Speaker of the lower house of the Japanese parliament in Beijing on Banri Kaieda 22. It is the first visit to China by the speaker and vice-speaker of both houses of the Japanese parliament in a six-year NHK since Speaker Tadamori Oshima in 2018, NHK said Wednesday. According to a report in Japanese Asahi Shimbun on the 24th, Politburo member of the Communist Party of China and foreign minister Wang Yi met in Beijing on the 23rd with Hiroshi Moriyama, general secretary of the Liberal Democratic Party, who has been visiting China since the 19th of this month.
During the Banri Kaieda meeting, Zhao Leji said that maintaining and developing china-japan friendly and cooperative relations is in the fundamental interests of the two peoples and is conducive to regional and world peace, stability and prosperity. China is ready to work with Japan to implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, enhance political mutual trust, strictly abide by the principles and consensus of the four political documents between China and Japan, deepen exchanges and cooperation in various fields, properly manage and handle sensitive issues, we should foster a positive public opinion and social atmosphere and push for stable and sound development of bilateral relations on the right track. The NPC of China is willing to maintain friendly exchanges with the Japanese parliament and strengthen exchanges at all levels of the legislature. Members of the Japanese Parliament are welcome to visit China to learn more about the real, comprehensive and three-dimensional China. The Banri Kaieda said the Japanese lower house was willing to strengthen exchanges with the Chinese National People’s Congress, adhere to peaceful coexistence, expand people-to-people exchanges and promote economic and cultural cooperation between the two countries.
During a meeting with Hiroshi Moriyama, Wang Yi said that China and Japan are close neighbors and that it is the right way for neighboring countries to live together to support, understand and help each other, according to a statement posted on the Chinese foreign ministry website yesterday. The two sides have long agreed to be“Partners and not threats to each other”, and China has never been an“Unprecedented strategic challenge”. Wang Yi also elaborated on China’s position and concerns regarding the discharge of contaminated water from Fukushima and the Taiwan issue, pointing out that the discharge of contaminated water from Fukushima is related to human health, the marine environment and international public interests, it is imperative to establish a long-term international monitoring mechanism to ensure the full and effective participation of China and other stakeholders. The Taiwan question concerns the political foundation of sino-japanese relations, and the Taiwan Strait is not a“Political show”.
According to the Asahi Shimbun, the meeting lasted 40 minutes and Hiroshi Moriyama asked the Chinese side to co-operate in resuming Japanese beef exports to China, it also called for“Concrete results” in areas where the two sides can work together, based on the“Strategic relationship of mutual benefit” reaffirmed by Japanese and Chinese leaders.
According to Japanese media reports, International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Minister Liu Jianchao met with Hiroshi Moriyama on the 22nd. In addition, Japanese Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare Takeshi Takeshi visited Beijing from 17 to 19 this month.
While Japan’s top party and government officials are making intensive visits to China, Chinese officials are also actively communicating with Japan. Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu was invited to Tokyo from May 22 to 23 to hold the strategic dialogue with Japanese foreign affairs minister Masaaki Okano, according to a report on the Chinese foreign ministry website on the 23rd, and met with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Ugawa. The china-japan strategic dialogue was held for the first time in four and a half years since January 2020, Japanese Jiji Press said Sunday.
According to the Sankei Shimbun on the 22nd, the Okinawa Prefecture government announced the same day that Zhou Zuyi, the party secretary of Fujian Province of China, would visit Okinawa from January 28 to 29, okinawa Prefecture Governor Tamagusuku Dany will meet Zhou Zuyi on the morning of the 29th. According to the Sankei Shimbun, a visit to Okinawa by a serving provincial party secretary is rare. However, Okinawa Prefecture and Fujian are friendly cities and Okinawa Prefecture wants to promote people-to-people exchanges.
In an interview with the Global Times, Chen Yang, a visiting researcher at the Center for Japanese Studies at Liaoning University, said that a number of senior Japanese party and government officials have been making intensive visits to China, on the one hand, it is to implement the broad consensus reached at the previous china-japan leaders’ meeting, strengthen dialogue and communication with China at all levels, and maintain communication and coordination on international and regional affairs. On the other hand, the uncertainty surrounding the outcome of the US presidential election, and in particular the prospect of Donald Trump’s return to power, has been accompanied by a desperate desire to maintain good relations with China.
As for Sino-japanese relations, da Zhigang, a researcher at the Institute of Northeast Asian Studies of the Heilongjiang Academy of Social Sciences, believes that Tokyo is seeking geopolitical toughness, releasing flexibility in the economy and improving relations to a limited extent, the issue of the Taiwan Strait and the discharge of contaminated Japanese nuclear water into the sea not only concerns China’s core interests, but also concerns the Chinese people. It is not something that can be solved by sending a few Japanese officials to China. Da Zhigang said that under the complicated geographical pattern and great-power game, as well as the historical enmity and realistic contradictions between China and Japan, china-japan relations must have games in cooperation and challenges in opportunities, there is friction in communication.
Da Zhigang said that he was cautiously optimistic about china-japan relations. In the fields of economy, trade and humanities, China and Japan may have room for cooperation, but in geopolitics, once the results of the US general election are out, when the next administration’s China policy takes shape, there is a good chance that Japan will once again join the United States in getting tough with China. He believes there will probably not be a higher-level exchange of visits between China and Japan before the US election, but does not rule out some government-to-government interaction.