Prime Minister Fumio Kishida received a flurry of requests, as well as professions of hope, from the ruling coalition before the first face-to-face summit between Japan and China in three years.
In addition to requests for continued constructive dialogue heard from some in the Liberal Democratic Party, conservative party members expressed concern about the rush to improve relations with China, which has increasingly moved to strengthen its hegemony.
"We expect [Kishida] to say what needs to be said and to ask China to act responsibly, while working together with China in areas where we can cooperate and promoting discussions to build a good bilateral relationship," LDP Secretary General Toshimitsu Motegi said at a faction meeting on Thursday.
Natsuo Yamaguchi, the leader of ruling coalition partner Komeito, emphasized the importance of continuing such talks.
"It is necessary to mark the first step toward building Japan-China relations, which will then lead to an expansion of dialogue," he said at a party meeting.
On the other hand, many LDP members have reacted strongly to Chinese government ships' repeated entries into waters around Okinawa Prefecture's Senkaku Islands, as well as Beijing's increasing military pressure on Taiwan and its launching of ballistic missiles into Japan's exclusive economic zone in August.
Former LDP Secretary General Akira Amari told reporters, "It is important not to compromise on any fundamental areas [such as security issues]."
A veteran member of the LDP's largest faction said, "China will only take advantage of us if we prioritize a friendly mood without sending a strong message on the Senkakus or Taiwan."
From friendship to tension
Fifty years have passed since Japan and China normalized their diplomatic relations in 1972. The era of friendly relations based on economic ties has gone, and tensions are rising over Taiwan and the Senkaku Islands against the backdrop of China's military buildup.
In the past, summit diplomacy made it possible to resolve differences.
Immediately after the normalization, top-level talks deepened bilateral relations. When Prime Minister Masayoshi Ohira visited China in 1979, he met with Premier Hua Guofeng and decided to provide China about 50 billion yen in government funds. This was the beginning of official development assistance to China, mainly through yen loans.
In 1983, Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone and Hu Yaobang, the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, met in Tokyo. They strengthened their rapport with one another and were described as overseeing "the golden age of Japan-China relations."
Relations between the two countries soured in the 2000s, with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visiting Yasukuni Shrine, but Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who took office in 2006, chose China as his first foreign trip, met with President Hu Jintao and agreed to seek a "mutually beneficial strategic relationship." Premier Wen Jiabao came to Japan the following year in return for Abe's visit, and the trip was dubbed "a visit to melt the ice."
Then China stepped up its coercive behavior. In September 2010, a Chinese fishing boat collided with a Japan Coast Guard patrol boat near the Senkaku Islands. When Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda decided to nationalize the islands, China reacted furiously and escalated its provocations.
In December 2012, Abe, once more prime minister, moved to improve relations, which were described as being at their "lowest point since World War II."
At a meeting with President Xi Jinping in September 2016, the two sides agreed to accelerate talks on implementing a maritime and aerial communication mechanism to avoid an accidental clash between the defense authorities of Japan and China.
Following an invitation from Abe for Xi to visit Japan, which was made during the June 2019 Group of 20 summit in Osaka, the Japanese and Chinese governments arranged for Xi to visit Japan as a state guest around the cherry blossom season in 2020, but the visit never materialized, partly due to the coronavirus pandemic. Momentum to improve relations with China, which has moved to secure its hegemony, has waned, and a face-to-face summit with Xi had not taken place since December 2019.
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