TOKYO: Efforts to improve Japan-China relations have come to a standstill, despite a bilateral summit last November in which Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to continue dialogue.
Since the summit, relevant experts from the two sides have seen no light at the end of the tunnel, and there have been no visits from China to Japan or vice versa by senior government officials.
Still, Kishida indicated his willingness to meet with Xi again, at a parliamentary meeting on April 19. “We will comprehensively promote a mutually beneficial strategic relationship by continuing dialogue at all levels, including the summit level,” he said.
The November summit came after the bilateral relations soured over Japan’s release into the sea of tritium-containing treated water from Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, which began in August that year.
The biggest issue currently standing between the two Asian nations is China’s blanket ban on imports of Japanese fishery products, which was imposed following the start of the treated water release. During the November summit in San Francisco, Kishida and Xi agreed to resolve the issue through dialogue.
Based on the agreement, experts from the two sides met online in January and in the Chinese city of Dalian in March. But the Chinese side has not lifted the import ban, as requested by the Japanese side.
“There’s still no solution in sight, although the Chinese side has begun to sit down at the negotiating table,” a Japanese government official said.
“As the Chinese economy is struggling, (China) seems to be entering a phase of ‘charm diplomacy’ to encourage Japanese investment,” a source close to the Japanese prime minister noted.
The Japanese and Chinese leaders have agreed to hold a ministerial-level economic dialogue at an appropriate time, but no date has been set yet.
The Japanese and Chinese foreign ministers also agreed at a meeting in Busan, South Korea, last November to consider reciprocal visits, but such visits have yet to be arranged.
“The only way to move Japan-China relations is to encourage top officials to do so,” said a senior official of Japan’s Foreign Ministry.
Efforts are being made to arrange a meeting between Kishida and Chinese Premier Li Qiang on the sidelines of an envisaged summit between Japan, China and South Korea in Seoul in late May.
The Japanese side is also seeking to set up a meeting between Kishida and Xi when they visit Brazil in November this year to attend a Group of 20 summit.
JIJI Press