Japanese Former Minister Says China’s Official Sees Japan-China Relations as ‘Showing Signs of Improvement’

By Kiyota Higa / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent

14:21 JST, November 17, 2023

BEIJING — Former internal affairs minister Takeshi Noda met with Hu Chunhua, vice chairperson of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on Thursday.

According to Noda, who currently is the president of the Japan-China Society Inc., Hu told him that bilateral relations have been “showing signs of improvement” since the Japan-China summit that was held in Thailand in November last year. Hu also stressed the importance of regional-level interactions.

Just before their meeting, Chinese officials made a request to Japanese media via the Japanese Embassy in Beijing to not report on the meeting until Friday. However, Japanese side did not agree to the request, so the Japanese media was refused permission to cover the start of the meeting.

Noda told the media that the Chinese side had tried to avoid any impact on a Japan-China summit in the United States.