Expectations are building for a possible meeting between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Japanese counterpart Yoko Kamikawa this week on the sidelines of ASEAN meetings in Vientiane, Laos.
Earlier this week, China’s vice foreign minister, Ma Zhaoxu, met with his counterpart in Tokyo, the first time the two countries have held strategic talks since 2020. Ma later met with Kamikawa during a visit to Tokyo.
According to a report in Chinese state-run newspaper, the Global Times, “The two sides had a candid and in-depth exchange of views on major strategic issues concerning China-Japan relations.” Ahead of the meetings in Laos, Japan’s Kyodo News Agency quoted government sources who said Tokyo is looking into a possible meeting between Wang and Kamikawa.
So far, neither side has confirmed plans to meet on the sidelines of ASEAN.
If they do meet in Laos, experts say the two will have a lot of contentious issues to discuss, including China’s detention of Japanese nationals, territorial disputes and Japan’s release of treated wastewater from its Fukushima nuclear power plant.
Sachio Nakato, professor at the College of International Relations at Ritsumeikan University in Japan, tells VOA’s Mandarin service that “Japan-China relations seem to lack the motivation to truly improve, but it is also necessary for the two countries to improve their relations as much as possible.”
Szu-shen Ho, director of the Center of Japan and East Asia Studies at Fu Jen Catholic University in Taiwan, notes three key areas of contention between China and Japan: a territorial dispute over the Senkaku Islands, which China calls the Diaoyu Islands, the detention of at least five Japanese nationals by China following the implementation of its revised counterespionage law, and the release Fukushima’s nuclear wastewater into the sea.
Ho said that while the two are “creating an atmosphere for the improvement of relations,” neither side is sure whether these disputes can be resolved through dialogue.
He said, however, that channels of communication between China and Japan, be it among Cabinet members or leaders, seem to be relatively “smooth.” Economic and trade relations, he adds, also still are very deep between China and Japan, despite the U.S.-China trade and technology war.
Last year, the United States was Japan’s biggest export market and China its biggest source of imports, according to Japanese trade data. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, however, some Japanese companies have shifted their investments out of China.
Late last year, Mitsubishi Motors announced it was leaving China’s market. Earlier this week, Nippon Steel ended a 20-year joint venture with China’s Baoshan Iron and Steel.
Despite the challenges, Hsien-Sen Lin, a professor of the Department of East Asia Studies at National Taiwan Normal University, sees some light at the end of the tunnel for the two countries.
He believes some of the major sticking points between Beijing and Tokyo could be resolved. China’s ban on Japanese aquatic products following its release of wastewater from Fukushima nuclear power plant was a misstep because no other major country followed suit.
Lin also believes that it’s possible China could release Japanese nationals who have been detained in China after they are sentenced and the judicial process is complete.
Tensions over Taiwan, however, remain a key sticking point.
Last week, Japan’s and Taiwan’s coast guarsd held a maritime shipwreck training drill off the eastern Japanese coast.
Taiwan’s 1,000-ton vessel “Patrol No. 9,” an ocean-going patrol ship, and the Japan Coast Guard’s “Sagami” patrol ship participated in the drill, which was conducted just south of the Boso Peninsula and near Izu Oshima on July 17.
The exercise, which sparked a strong protest from China, was the first joint maritime training for Japan and Taiwan since Tokyo severed diplomatic ties with Taipei in September 1972 and switched recognition to Beijing.
Beijing’s “One China” principle demands that countries not maintain official relations with Taiwan, but Japan, like a growing number of nations in the region, has been expanding ties with Taipei in response to growing Chinese aggression.
Japan’s chief Cabinet secretary, Yoshimasa Hayashi, said the exercise was not aimed at any country, including China.
Ho said the cooperative relationship between the two coast guards is a “very long-term relationship,” and that the two countries are likely to cooperate in non-traditional security fields in the future.
He stressed, however, that neither the Japanese coast guard nor the Taiwan coast guard is military, and said the public should not read too much into it. He added that he does not think the cooperation will have an impact on Sino-Japan relations.
