First Meeting of Japan’s New PM with Chinese President

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba had a meeting with the President of China, Xi Jinping, for the first time in Lima, Peru, where he visited to participate in the leaders’ meeting of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). Both leaders reconfirmed comprehensive promotion of “mutually beneficial relationship based on common strategic interests,” which has been a basic concept to maintain bilateral relationship of both countries. Given rising tension over presence in the western Pacific region, both leaders look like making efforts to manage the situation of the region. 

In a thirty-five-minute meeting, Ishiba exhibited his hope to improve bilateral relations of both nations. “We can share the direction to mutually beneficial relationship based on common strategic interests, and constructive and stable Japan-China relations,” told Ishiba to Xi. The statement was made along with the line drawn in his meeting with Chinese Prime Minister, Li Qiang, in Vientiane, Laos, in October.

 

Xi showed his willingness to enhance communication and cooperation with Ishiba to promote stable development in the long run. “Concerning a volatile situation in the world and the region, the relations between China and Japan is getting into an important moment for improvement and advance,” said Xi at the beginning of the meeting.

 

Ishiba proposed accumulating high-level meetings, including the top leaders, between both governments. Recognizing the last leader’s visit from one to another was 2019, Ishiba hoped to have a good opportunity to visit China. Both governments are going to seek Li’s visit to Japan in 2025, taking opportunity of trilateral leaders’ meeting with Republic of Korea and China in Japan next year.

 

Ishiba also expressed his deep concern on China’s military activities in South and East China Sea, including invasion of Japan’s airspace by Chinese military aircraft. Both leaders reconfirmed implementation of an agreement to restart China’s import of Japanese products, which had been stopped after the discharge of “processed water” from crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant to the Pacific Ocean.

 

Ishiba also requested Xi to take actions for assuring safety of Japanese in China, concerning murder of a Japanese student of elementary school by a Chinese in Shenzhen in October. Xi told that he would secure safety of all the foreign residents including the Japanese.

 

Ishiba would not be an inconvenient leader of Japan, whom China cannot easily deal with. Different from past hawkish leaders who did not hesitate visiting Yasukuni Shrine, Ishiba does not have a firm political basis on right-wing supporters. Ishiba admires former Japan’s prime minister, Kakuei Tanaka, as his mentor. Tanaka is known as having cultivated bilateral relationship with China, with personal relationship with Chinese leader, Zhou Enlai.

 

Japan and China can share a concern on unpredictable diplomacy or trade policy by U.S. President-elect, Donald Trump. It is possible that Trump’s distancing from Asia-Pacific issues accelerates normalization of bilateral relations between Japan and China.