Trade chiefs of Japan, China briefly met in China amid last year's row
Beijing, May 23
The Japanese trade minister Ryosei Akazawa said on Saturday that he and his Chinese counterpart Wang Wentao had a brief exchange on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in Suzhou, eastern China, local media reported.
This exchange marks the first ministerial contact between the two nations since their latest diplomatic dispute flared up last year.
The ties between China and Japan deteriorated since last November when Sanae Takaichi, the Japanese Prime Minister, suggested in parliament that in the event of a conflict over Taiwan, Japan could deploy its defence forces.
Iwao Horii, Senior Vice Foreign Minister, who attended the forum together with Akazawa, also met with Wang separately, Japan's leading Kyodo News Agency reported.
During their meeting, Horii asked China to ensure the safety of Japanese nationals in China, he told the reporters.
This comes after a knife attack in Shanghai on two Japanese men and one Chinese woman, who were injured at a Japanese restaurant in Shanghai on Tuesday.
Since the escalation of tensions between the two nations regarding Takaichi's remarks, Tokyo has maintained that it stays open for dialogue with Beijing and hopes to arrange a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Takaichi during an APEC summit in November to improve strained relations, noted the report.
Akazawa stressed that "The Japanese government policy of seeking strategic and mutually beneficial ties with China remains unchanged."
China has increased pressure on Japan with tighter export control on dual-use items, which include rare earths, after the escalation, the report highlighted.
It added that after the conclusion of the APEC session, Akazawa called for the removal of export control measures on rare earths as they could "severely impact global supply chains," and are not in line with international practices.
Taiwan, which is also a member of the APEC, sent Yang Jen-ni, its trade representative to the forum, but neither Akazawa nor Horii had any contact with the representative, according to the Japanese officials.
— IANS
Reader Comments
Honestly, the knife attack on Japanese nationals in Shanghai is terrible. No matter the political tensions, attacking civilians is just wrong. I hope both governments focus on safety and de-escalation. China using rare earths as leverage is a bit heavy-handed, but Japan also needs to respect the One-China principle. Diplomacy works both ways.
Trade is trade, politics is politics. Japan needs China's market and rare earths, China needs Japan's investment. This meeting is just a formality. The real test will be at the APEC summit in November. If Xi and Takaichi shake hands, we'll know things are improving. Until then, it's just posturing. India should strengthen ties with both but not get caught in their crossfire. 🇮🇳
From a global supply chain perspective, these rare earth export controls are concerning. China supplies over 60% of the world's rare earths, and using them as a political weapon could backfire. Japan should diversify its supply sources—India has rare earth reserves too. Maybe this is an opportunity for India to step up and offer a reliable alternative. Just saying! 😅
I find it interesting that Japan's trade reps avoided Taiwan's delegate. That's a clear message. But honestly, this whole Taiwan thing is a minefield. India's position is clear—we support One-China but also have strong ties with Taiwan on trade. We have to be careful not to get dragged into this. Hope both sides sort it out without any major conflict.
A "brief exchange" on the sidelines—that's diplomatic code for "we had to meet but didn't want to make it official." 🙄 The tensions are real, but both economies are too interdependent to stay angry for long. The knife attack in Shanghai is a sad reminder that ordinary people suffer when governments play hardball
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