China-Japan Diplomatic Relations Moving in the Right Direction: Chinese Foreign Ministry

China Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun urged the Japanese authorities to seriously reflect on and correct their wrongdoings and take real actions to return to the purpose and mission of the four key political documents shared by China and Japan. Guo Jiakun made the remarks at a daily news conference in Beijing on Tuesday, the 54th anniversary of the issuance of the China-Japan Joint Statement in 1972, which marked the normalization of relations between the two countries.

The four political documents, including the joint statement, laid the political and legal foundation for China-Japan relations, and established the rules for properly settling major issues of principle, including history and Taiwan, Guo Jiakun said. “There should be no distortion or regression, still less sabotage, regarding these principles,” he said. As for the severe situation facing China-Japan relations today, he said that the root cause lies in the political foundation of the bilateral relations being gravely undermined.

He noted that the incumbent leader of Japan not only refuses to reflect on the history of aggression, but also claims that a contingency in Taiwan will constitute a “survival-threatening” situation for Japan. “This is a blatant challenge to China’s state sovereignty and against the aspiration demonstrated by the normalization of China-Japan relations and the political commitments Japan made to China,” Guo Jiakun  said.

Japan keeps peddling the “external threat” narrative, using it as a pretext to speed up remilitarization, the spokesman said, adding that the move poses a challenge to the postwar international order and threatens regional peace and stability. Guo Jiakun’s comments served as a fresh call to Japan to honor its commitments, following Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s meeting on Monday in Beijing with former Japanese foreign minister Takeshi Iwaya, who is currently head of the Japanese Association for the Promotion of International Trade.

During the meeting, Wang underscored that the pressing priority for Japan is to correct the Japanese leader’s erroneous words and deeds on the Taiwan question. As next year marks the 55th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan, Wang stressed that Japan should adopt a correct attitude on historical issues. Describing the current state of Japan-China relations as concerning, Iwaya said that Japan should not forget the lessons of the past, and Japanese politicians must steer the country in the right direction.