China calls on Japan to ‘properly manage conflicts’ as they mark 50 years of ties

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang exchange congratulatory letters with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida
But they didn’t attend receptions in Beijing and Tokyo on the anniversary, at a time when the relationship has grown more adversarial

China-Japan relations

Shi Jiangtao

Published: 8:00pm, 29 Sep 2022

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Beijing urged Tokyo to “properly manage” their feud and aim for “peaceful and friendly coexistence”, as the Asian rivals marked 50 years of diplomatic ties.

It comes as the relationship has grown more adversarial amid heightened tensions in the Taiwan Strait and the US-China divide, on top of their territorial disputes and wartime history.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang exchanged congratulatory letters with Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, but they did not attend receptions in Beijing and Tokyo to mark the anniversary on Thursday.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was not at the event in Beijing, even virtually, according to several people who were there. Meanwhile, his Japanese counterpart Yoshimasa Hayashi attended the Tokyo reception hosted by the Japan Business Federation, known as Keidanren.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said Beijing was willing to work with Tokyo to build a relationship that “meets the requirements of the new era”. Photo: AP

In his message to Kishida, Xi said he attached “great importance” to ties with Tokyo and that Beijing was willing to work with Japan’s leaders to build a bilateral relationship that “meets the requirements of the new era”, according to state news agency Xinhua.

Xi also hailed the “foresight” of the move to normalise bilateral ties 50 years ago, when then Chinese premier Zhou Enlai and then Japanese prime minister Kakuei Tanaka vowed to “establish relations of perpetual peace and friendship”.

Premier Li was more blunt, calling for joint efforts to “work for peaceful and friendly coexistence … deepen exchanges and cooperation in various fields, properly manage conflicts and differences, and push for a healthy and stable development of bilateral ties”, Xinhua reported.

Li also urged Tokyo to help “maintain the political foundation of bilateral relations” – a reference to Japan’s close alignment with the US on Taiwan and its growing hostilities towards China over territorial, historical and regional issues.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida acknowledged there were “many issues and challenges” in the relationship. Photo: EPA-EFE

In Tokyo, Kishida acknowledged in his message to Xi that bilateral relations were facing “many issues and challenges”, but said Japan was eager to have “constructive and stable” ties with China for the “peace and prosperity of the region and the world”, Kyodo reported.

The Japanese leader – who agreed with Xi to pursue “constructive and stable” relations when they spoke by phone last October – has been a vocal critic of China. On Monday, he criticised Beijing over Taiwan and reaffirmed Japan’s alliance with Washington during a meeting with US Vice-President Kamala Harris.

At the Keidanren event, Foreign Minister Hayashi told some 850 attendees – including former Japanese prime minister Yasuo Fukuda and Chinese ambassador to Japan Kong Xuanyou – that Tokyo and Beijing had a “responsibility for peace and prosperity in the region”.

The Beijing reception was attended by China’s assistant foreign minister Wu Jianghao and Ding Zhongli, vice-chairman of the legislature’s standing committee, as well as Japan’s ambassador to China Hideo Tarumi and former Chinese ambassadors to Japan Cui Tiankai and Cheng Yonghua, according to Kyodo.

Liu Jiangyong, an expert on Japanese affairs at Tsinghua University who was at the event in Beijing, said Wang’s absence was due to “a scheduling issue”.

“He is travelling abroad as far as I understand,” Liu said, adding that this year’s event was “not as high-profile” as previous years but that “it shouldn’t be an issue for bilateral ties”.

China’s foreign ministry said Wang did not have any overseas travel or public events scheduled for Thursday.

Despite simmering tensions over the disputed Diaoyu Islands – which Japan controls and calls the Senkakus – relations had briefly improved after the late Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe visited China in 2018, with the two sides planning for Xi to visit Japan in 2020.

But the detente was short-lived, as the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine further strained ties between the world’s second- and third-largest economies.

China and Japan clashed after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August and Beijing responded with large-scale military drills around the self-ruled island, which it sees as a renegade province to be brought under its control, by force if necessary.

After Japan led the Group of Seven in condemning China’s drills – including the alleged firing of ballistic missiles into Japan’s exclusive economic zone – Wang cancelled a planned meeting with Hayashi during a regional gathering in Cambodia last month.

Liu from Tsinghua University said the Taiwan issue was the “most sensitive and important issue” for bilateral ties.

Beijing and Tokyo normalised relations in 1972 after Japan severed diplomatic ties with the island.

“In recent years, we’ve seen worrying signs of the Japanese government – under Kishida as well as his predecessors Shinzo Abe and Yoshihide Suga – trying to back-pedal on the issue, in a bid to return to Japan’s pre-1972 stance on Taiwan,” Liu said.

“That’s why Chinese leaders are stressing the importance of learning historical lessons,” he added.

“China and Japan have come a long way since they normalised ties 50 years ago,” he said. “I don’t see why we can’t do it again and bring bilateral ties back on track now.”