‘Wise diplomacy’ embraced in China-Japan ties

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04:03

By CGTN’s The Point

China and Japan are now fostering “wise diplomacy,” experts say, in the wake of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s official visit to Japan, the first by a Chinese premier in eight years.

The “warm-up” visit signifies the bilateral relations have been brought to the right track, Rong Ying, vice president of China Institute of International Studies, said on CGTN’s The Point.

Relations between China and Japan, the world’s second and the third largest economy, soured in 2012 after Tokyo raised the dispute over the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea.

“There have been political difficulties created by heat questions of historical and territorial controversy,” Rong said.

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Masahiro Kohara, a professor at the University of Tokyo, argued that a “wise diplomacy” asks countries to increase the shared interests and minimize the contending interests, hailing the Tokyo summit as an excellent start to widening the win-win relations and manage the pending issues.

Kohara said Li’s “constructive visit” has paved the way for Abe’s China visit, and then President Xi Jinping’s future visit to Japan.

“As we mark the 40th anniversary of the Japan-China peace and friendship treaty this year, I wish to build a relationship where leaders can easily visit each other,” Abe said on Wednesday.

During Li’s visit, China and Japan agreed, after tough negotiations over the years, on a mechanism for air and maritime communication, which is set to prevent security miscalculations in the East China Sea, Rong noted.

Rong also said that China and Japan uphold a political consensus that the two sides see each other as “partner” in cooperation, but also as a “threat.” But China still has some misgivings, as he doubted if Japan would honor its pledges on the four cornerstone political documents signed between China and Japan.

Kohara believed that both China and Japan are faced with protectionism led by the US and the two economies are tasked to work together in defending the free trade framework.

The Point with Liu Xin is a 30-minute current affairs program on CGTN. It airs weekdays at 9:30 p.m. BJT (1330GMT), with rebroadcasts at 5:30 a.m. (2130GMT) and 10:30 a.m. (0230GMT).