Harmony In Japan-China Ties Has Long Way To Go; Meeting of Sides’ Ruling Party Officials First in Years

By Hiroki Takao / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

21:00 JST, January 15, 2025

BEIJING — There is a long way to go for Japan and China to improve bilateral relations, even after a delegation of Japanese Diet members and senior members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) agreed in China on Tuesday to encourage bilateral exchanges.

The delegation of lawmakers from the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito and their CCP counterparts held a meeting of the Japan-China Ruling Party Exchange Council at which they agreed to encourage greater diplomatic activities by both countries’ lawmakers.

However, the improvement of the bilateral relationship is still incomplete as a mountain of pending tasks between Japan and China remains.

At the beginning of the meeting, LDP Secretary General Hiroshi Moriyama told Liu Jianchao, chief of the CCP’s International Department of the Central Committee, “We want to accommodate you in Japan in late autumn and hold a meeting of this council.”

To Moriyama’s call for full-fledged resumption of the council’s meetings, Liu, who is in charge of party diplomacy on the Chinese side, mentioned the need to enhance dialogue between the two countries’ ruling parties.

Liu showed his forward-looking stance to diplomatic exchanges from now on.

The council’s meeting had been postponed since October 2018, when the previous one was held in Japan. The last time the council had met in China was in December 2017.

The Chinese government, struggling to cope with a stagnant economy, has been trying to improve ties with neighboring countries.

Coinciding with resumption of full-fledged dialogue between the governments of Japan and China, the LDP and Komeito intend to get lawmakers’ diplomacy back on track after connections between the two countries’ lawmakers have declined.

However, the meeting’s major agenda was concerns between Japan and China.

Moriyama demanded that China abolish restrictions on imports of Japanese marine products and beef. He sought practical responses from China, saying, “It is important for us to share wisdom to resolve the problems one by one.”

Moriyama also mentioned issues of China’s coercive actions mainly in the East China Sea and its detention of Japanese nationals in the country.

Komeito Secretary General Makoto Nishida, in an apparent reference to China’s coercive military actions, proposed the creation of an Asian version of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

In response, Liu reiterated the Chinese government’s insistent stance, saying Taiwan is an inseparable part of territories of China, thus voicing coded criticism of Japan’s stance of deepening ties with Taipei.

By Tuesday, in addition to the council meeting, the Japanese delegation had also met with other high-ranking members of the CCP, including fourth-ranking Wang Huning, chairperson of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

Wang is seen as a close aide to Chinese President Xi Jinping. A meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang was arranged on Wednesday for the Japanese delegation.

In August last year, Moriyama, who was then the LDP’s General Council chairman, visited China as a member of a delegation of the Japan-China Friendship Parliamentarians’ Union.

At the time, he met just one high-ranking Chinese official — Zhao Leji, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, who ranked third in the CCP.

It seems that the Chinese side is also considering how to improve ties with Japan while watching moves on the Japanese side about mending relations.

A source in the Japanese delegation said, “All we can do is continue accumulating dialogues.”