China-Japan ties: Coronavirus and US tensions cloud hopes for ‘new era’

The East China Sea territorial dispute, a will by Japan to move manufacturing away from China and Sino-US friction are among issues damaging the relationship

Japan has many businesses in Hong Kong and is concerned about the impact of the national security law

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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (left) was set to welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) this year but the coronavirus pandemic has postponed the visit. Photo: DPA

Published: 12:00pm, 4 Aug 2020Updated: 2:57pm, 4 Aug 2020

This year was supposed to usher in a new era of cooperation between China and Japan. At the G20 summit in Osaka in 2019, both countries agreed that it was time for a reboot in the relationship.

But hopes of that new era have faded amid the coronavirus pandemic and a sharp decline in the relationship between Beijing and Washington.

There were still positive signs in February. As China grappled with an epidemic that first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, Japan sent urgently needed medical supplies, with poetry on the side of boxes filled with face masks and thermometers: “Even though we live in different places, we live under the same sky.”

“I was really moved … Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the Japanese government and society have expressed sympathy, understanding and support,” Hua Chunying, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman, said in early February.

However, cracks have since emerged on several fronts between China and Japan as the Sino-US relationship quickly worsened and pushed Japan to be more vigilant towards China, the controversial national security law was introduced in Hong Kong and China continued to expand its reach in the East China Sea.

The virus also disrupted supply chains, prompting the Japanese government to offer incentives to companies to move operations out of China.