CHINA-JAPAN: JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER SHINZO ABE'S VISIT TO BEIJING
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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, accompanied by approximately 500 Japanese businesspeople arrived in Beijing for a three-day official visit on the first formal bilateral visit by a Japanese leader to China in nearly seven years on October 25, 2018. Though nominally intended to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship, the visit culminates a quiet process of mutual accommodation over the past year. An array of bilateral agreements will be signed to commemorate the visit. A renewed currency swap agreement with a ceiling of 3 trillion yen (US$27 billion) — 10 times more than that of the previous arrangement — is expected. The two countries will also establish a new framework for talks on technological cooperation and intellectual property protection. And in response to Japan’s request, China will probably lift the ban on food imports from 10 Japanese prefectures that was introduced after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis. Tokyo and Beijing are on track to ease strategic mistrust as well. An agreement to cooperate on search and rescue at sea is likely to be signed, and the head of the Joint Staff of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces is expected to visit China in 2019 — the first visit in 11 years. The first Japan–China Third-Party Market Cooperation Forum will be the highlight of Abe’s China trip. The two countries are expected to seal approximately 30 memorandums of understanding on Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
(Comment: Members of both Japan’s government and populace share US concerns about China. A 2018 survey of approximately 3000 Japanese business people reports that 81.4 per cent of respondents are concerned with the political risks of doing business in China and 90.3 per cent perceive China as a threat to Japan. But in a time when tensions between the United States and China are riding high, Japan is not fully committed to joining the US camp. The Abe administration is instead pursuing a more balanced foreign policy. On the one hand, Tokyo is strengthening the Japan–US alliance and ‘promoting the networking of allies and friendly nations’ like Australia, India, Britain and France to counter China’s rise. On the other hand, Japan is striving to mend its relations with China by promoting economic cooperation, easing strategic mistrust and developing mechanisms to prevent clashes in the East China Sea.) |