Japanese delegations plan trips to China ahead of APEC in Shenzhen
Japanese lawmakers and business representatives are planning a series of trips to China ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Shenzhen in mid-November. According to the South China Morning Post, former Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya will lead a delegation from the Japan Association for the Promotion of International Trade later this month. The delegation seeks to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Japan's largest business lobby, Keidanren, and the Kansai Economic Federation from Osaka are also planning visits to China in the coming months.
Possible meeting in November
Rintaro Nishimura, a senior fellow at consulting firm The Asia Group, believes such contacts will have limited results without a clear signal from Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi or her cabinet that they are prepared to make efforts to improve relations with Beijing. According to him, Beijing draws a distinction between the Japanese government and other participants in the contacts.
Wang Guangtao, deputy director of the Center for Japanese Studies at Fudan University, said the series of visits is mainly intended to lay the groundwork for a possible meeting between Takaichi and Xi in November. Takaichi is expected to attend the APEC event in Shenzhen, but the possibility of her talks with the Chinese leader remains uncertain.
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Taiwan and contacts with Beijing
Wang expressed doubts about the effectiveness of the trips by businesspeople and lawmakers due to deteriorating China-Japan relations and what he called Takaichi's “mistaken remarks” about Taiwan. He also noted that it is unknown whether the delegations received a mandate from the prime minister or her cabinet.
In late August, Japanese lawmakers met with Lu Kang, vice minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China. In a statement, the department said Lu described history and Taiwan as central issues of tension between the two countries and urged Tokyo to take “concrete actions” to improve relations.
Toru Horiuchi, an expert on China-Japan relations at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, noted that the visits help maintain channels of communication. At the same time, he said Japanese lawmakers had not met with representatives of China's leadership, while business delegations had so far been small. Horiuchi also said China demands that Takaichi retract her remarks about Taiwan, so a significant breakthrough is unlikely without compromise.
