Japan's Kishida meets senior Chinese diplomat, pledges to 'fully utilise' all available dialogue platforms with China

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged to "utilise all available dialogue platforms" to resolve issues of concern with China, as he met a senior Chinese diplomat in Tokyo on Wednesday in the latest bilateral exchange to bolster ties.

Liu Jianchao, head of international liaison for China's ruling Communist Party, is currently leading a delegation to Japan, his first visit since taking up the post in 2022.

His trip comes shortly after Japan, China and South Korea wrapped up a trilateral summit in Seoul, aiming to boost cooperation on various fronts and seek greater regional balance of power.

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"Japan would like to enhance high-level communications with China, fully utilise all available dialogue platforms, address some issues of concern through dialogue, and collaborate on mutually beneficial projects," Kishida said, according to a readout of their meeting from Liu's office, the International Department of the Central Committee.

Kishida did not elaborate on what exactly those pending issues might be, but Tokyo is keen for Beijing to lift its ban on Japanese seafood and has also expressed "serious concerns" about People's Liberation Army manoeuvres in the Taiwan Strait.

China, a top importer of Japanese seafood, slapped the ban last August after Japan went ahead with releasing treated radioactive water from its damaged Fukushima nuclear plant, despite opposition from Beijing over environmental concerns.

Japan has repeatedly requested that the ban be lifted, including during Kishida's bilateral meeting with Premier Li Qiang on Sunday, a day ahead of their three-way talks with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol.

Kishida also raised the issue when he met Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco last November, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

Other points of contention, including Tokyo's deepening military alliance with Washington, the territorial dispute over the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea - controlled and claimed by Japan as the Senkakus, and the detention of Japanese nationals in China, have also cast a shadow over bilateral ties.

Liu acknowledged that the Xi-Kishida meeting in San Francisco had set a positive tone for future engagement. The bilateral relationship was headed towards stability, he said, while pointing out that "challenges remain".

He also urged Tokyo to adhere to the one-China principle - that Taiwan is a part of China - and "appropriately" handle sensitive issues like the discharge of "nuclear-contaminated water".

"Both sides need to implement the consensus reached by the two leaders, enhancing interactions across all levels, and fostering an objective and accurate mutual understanding," Liu said.

Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary, and most countries, including the US and Japan, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state. But Washington is opposed to any attempt to take the self-governed island by force and is committed to supplying it with weapons.

During talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa later on Wednesday, Liu called for more exchanges among strategic, academic, local, and civil society sectors to "establish a correct mutual understanding".

Kamikawa said Japan would strengthen high-level diplomatic and cultural dialogue and collaborate with China on global issues such as climate change, so as to jointly address global challenges, according to the Chinese statement.

In its annual diplomatic blue book released last month, Japan pledged to pursue a "mutually beneficial relationship based on common strategic interest" with China, reinstating the reference after five years. The reference has also been frequently picked up in recent bilateral exchanges.

But the report also said that China posed significant challenges to Japan's security environment.

Tokyo's annual defence report last July said the military balance across the Taiwan Strait was "rapidly tilting" to Beijing's favour, a matter of concern to Japan given the proximity of its southwestern airspace and waters to Taiwan.

Meanwhile, China's concerns have grown as security ties deepen between the United States and Japan and South Korea, major US allies in the Asia-Pacific region. Beijing sees such efforts as the forming of small coalitions by the US to encircle China.

At Sunday's bilateral meeting with Kishida, Premier Li expressed hopes that the neighbours would "manage their differences" and build "constructive and stable" ties, as the two countries agreed to launch a new round of high-level economic dialogue.

Hailing their interlinked economies, Li said the complementary economic strengths of the two countries were expected to persist in the long term.

"Both sides should support each other's success and jointly maintain the stability and smooth functioning of supply chains and the global free trade system," he said.

The remarks also reflected Beijing's concerns about Tokyo joining US-led efforts last year to restrict exports of advanced chipmaking equipment to China.

The second meeting of the China-Japan dialogue mechanism on export controls was held on Monday in Shanghai, where both sides discussed issues of concern, the Chinese commerce ministry said.

"Both sides agreed to continue close communication, deepen understanding of each other's export control systems, enhance the transparency of export control measures, and ensure that normal trade is not hindered," the Chinese readout published on Wednesday said.

Liu also held meetings on Wednesday with Japan's opposition leaders, Kenta Izumi of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, and Mizuho Fukushima of the Social Democratic Party.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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