South China Morning Post
Advertisement
Advertisement
China-Japan relations
Get more with myNEWS
A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you
Learn more
Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said relations remained “in a serious and difficult situation” given the nations’ different values and rules. Photo: Kyodo
ChinaDiplomacy

Japan’s foreign minister says ties with China remain ‘in a difficult situation’

  • Toshimitsu Motegi expresses hope that the relationship will improve, stressing need for communication and dialogue
  • At the same forum, his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi warns that issues like Taiwan are ‘serious and sensitive’
China-Japan relations
Liu Zhen
Kyodo
Liu ZhenandKyodo
Why you can trust SCMP
Japan’s foreign minister on Monday expressed hope for Tokyo’s relations with Beijing to improve, as the two Asian powers prepare to mark the 50th anniversary of the normalisation of bilateral diplomatic ties next year.

In a message to an online forum attended by experts well versed in the two nations’ affairs, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said Sino-Japanese relations remained “in a serious and difficult situation” given that the Asian countries had different values and rules.

Motegi also emphasised the necessity of people-to-people communication and dialogue to build a constructive and stable relationship.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, meanwhile, said in a video message that mutual exchanges between the two countries should be promoted in various fields.

But Wang warned that issues such as Taiwan were “serious and sensitive”, apparently urging Japan not to interfere in what the Chinese government claims are its internal affairs.

Beijing sees self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory, to be taken under its control by force if necessary.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said mutual exchanges should be promoted. Photo: Handout

The two-day Tokyo-Beijing Forum, which began on Monday, is being co-hosted by Japanese non-profit think tank Genron NPO and the China International Publishing Group (CIPG). It has been held every year since 2005 as a public diplomacy platform and aims to facilitate communication despite difficulties in bilateral ties.

The relationship between the two countries has long been strained over historical grievances and a territorial dispute over a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, and more recently over issues including Taiwan, Hong Kong and Xinjiang.

Also speaking at the forum on Monday, former Japanese prime minister Yasuo Fukuda said the world was “facing a huge paradigm shift”.

He said those who saw confrontation between China, the United States and Japan as inevitable were not “standing together to respond to the great challenges and crises facing humanity and the planet”.

Fukuda also said the world could not tackle global issues without effective cooperation, adding that the current intense rivalry between Beijing and Washington would not last forever.

The forum comes after its organisers last week published the results of a survey that found negative perceptions about China had worsened in Japan.

Genron NPO worked with CIPG to survey 1,000 Japanese and 1,547 Chinese respondents between August and September.

For 90.9 per cent of those in Japan, their impression of China was “not good” – a slight rise from last year’s 89.7 per cent and the fourth-worst level since the poll began in 2005.

In China, about two-thirds of the respondents had a negative perception of Japan, up from 52.9 per cent per cent in 2020. Those who viewed Japan favourably fell to 32 per cent from 45.2 per cent in last year’s survey.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Tokyo’s foreign ministerforeign minister hopes for better Beijing ties amid ‘difficult’ times with China
18