Beijing, Tokyo voice support for free trade amid high-level talks
China and Japan voiced their support for free trade based on the World Trade Organization and warned against protectionism on Monday.
In a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said both countries should strengthen communication and coordination, stand against protectionism, safeguard the global free trade system with the WTO as the core and build an open world economy.
Abe said Japan also values WTO rules and thinks trade problems should be settled according to such rules. Japan pays great attention to the new measures President Xi Jinping announced for expanding China’s openingup at the recent annual conference of the Boao Forum for Asia and believes such measures promote bilateral economic ties, he said.
The two sides also expressed their hope for cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative.
China values Abe’s positive comments on the Belt and Road, Wang said, adding that China hopes to discuss with Japan appropriate ways and specific paths for Tokyo to participate.
Abe said he expects the initiative to help the regional economy to recover and develop.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the signing of China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship. Abe said his country values highly its ties with China and hopes to use the opportunity to improve their ties across the board and achieve high level exchanges.
Abe also said he looks forward to and welcomes Premier Li Keqiang to attend the leaders’ meeting between China, Japan and the Republic of Korea and to make an official visit to Japan.
China values the positive signs Abe has been showing since last year on improving ties, Wang said, adding that they should treasure the hard-won momentum.
Also on Monday, Wang co-led the fourth bilateral high-level economic dialogue in Tokyo with Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono. The dialogue had been stalled for nearly eight years.
At the dialogue, ministers in charge of treasury, economy and diplomacy reached a wide range of consensuses, according to a Foreign Ministry news release.
Beijing and Tokyo should jointly advance the integration process of the East Asia economy and spur negotiations on the China-Japan-Republic of Korea Free Trade Agreement and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership free trade pact, Wang said. In addition, they should move closer to building the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific, he said.
Jiang Ruiping, vice-president of China Foreign Affairs University and an expert on Japan’s economy, said Beijing and Tokyo have every reason to better coordinate with each other to catalyze regional free trade negotiations.
They could shift mutual competition in third-party markets such as Southeast Asia and Africa into cooperation to minimize unnecessary competition, Jiang added.
Avisit by a Chinese foreign minister to a neighboring country and an economic dialogue session between China and a next-door neighbor should not be a big deal. It would not be were that neighbor not Japan, and such visits and dialogues not been respectively postponed for nine and eight years. That such a visit and conversation have finally taken place means a lot to both Beijing and Tokyo, as this year marks the 40th anniversary of the China-Japan Peace and Friendship Treaty.
That the two parties have chosen to repair ties and reopen highlevel economic dialogue after such a long hiatus has naturally inspired high hopes in both countries that substantial improvements in broader ties will materialize.
Trade is a fitting starting point for any serious attempt at restoring the China-Japan relationship. It has long served as the “ballast and propeller” of bilateral political relations, as well as overall state-to-state relations. The high-level economic dialogue is the highest intergovernmental mechanism for economic cooperation, and it is supposed to facilitate corresponding policy communication and coordination.
In spite of their previous exchanges of tough rhetoric, Beijing and Tokyo know their economies are indispensable to each other. However, that they are most important trading partner to each other is only a relatively small, and increasingly smaller, part of their mutual significance. Recent changes in the global economic landscape, especially the rise of anti-globalization, protectionist tendencies, reveal increasing common interests between the two countries. Their shared reliance on overseas resources and markets determines a keenly felt shared interest in safeguarding free trade and economic globalization.
And despite the troubles brewed by history and their territorial dispute, the two governments appear to converge on the need to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said he is eager to brief his host on the “very positive important changes” in the situation on the peninsula. Such an encouraging sign of bilateral communication is crucial for retaining the current momentum toward peaceful engagement with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Wang’s visit will be conducive to positive interaction at higher levels, especially his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. But, despite this, the “substantial upgrade” in bilateral ties well-wishers anticipate may not come easily.
Wang was correct in reminding his Japanese counterpart of “complex and sensitive factors” that have to be overcome to improve the China-Japan relationship. The relationship has demonstrated special vulnerability and the two governments will have to work hard to manage their differences.
It is to be hoped the shared desire to improve relations is based on sound foresight rather than merely blind hopes.