The Nikkei Asian Review’s senior editor Katsuji Nakazawa wrote on the 8th that Japan’s Toshimichi Mogi spoke with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi for 90 minutes at the invitation of the Chinese side on the 5th. Wang Yi did not care that China was on a Ching Ming holiday and was eager to send a message to Japan, reflecting Chinese President Xi Jinping’s unease at the noise before the meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and U.S. President Joe Biden on the 16th, and Wang Yi’s message to Japan was “Taiwan, Taiwan, Taiwan”!
The call gave Shigeru the perfect opportunity to express his “serious concerns” about Xinjiang, Hong Kong and the Chinese maritime police, and for Wang Yi, even though he knew Shigeru would throw a few punches, the message couldn’t go unanswered, and the importance of the message was clearly at stake.
Wang Yi said that Japan, as an independent country, should look at China’s development objectively and rationally, rather than being “led by the rhythm” of some countries that are biased against China.
The article said this was the most important sentence of the phone call, in which Wang drew a red line for Japan.
The article said that the biggest concern of Xi Jinping is undoubtedly the issue of Taiwan, and that for General Secretary Xi, who is committed to governing beyond his second term in 2022, his political assets may be “a success in Taiwan and a failure in Taiwan,” and that after the meeting between Biden and Kan at the White House, a joint document may be issued, which is expected to emphasize the importance of stability in the Taiwan Strait.
He said that three recent episodes show how important Taiwan is to Xi.
The timing of Xi’s March 22-25 trip to Wuyi Mountain with his wife in late March, a relaxing tea and boat tour that came after the U.S. and Chinese diplomatic chiefs went head-to-head in Alaska, showed he was not affected by the meeting in any way.
However, his Fujian trip was actually a prelude to a major diplomatic stunt aimed at countering the anti-China alliance formed by the United States and other Western countries, a direction that became clearer six days after Xi left Fujian province.
The article mentions that Wang Yi went straight to Fujian after his Middle East trip, visiting the cities of Nanping and Xiamen, sites under Mount Wuyi, where he met with the foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries of Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines from March 31 to April 2, and met with the South Korean foreign minister in Xiamen.
The choice of Fujian for the talks has deep political implications. A posting in the People’s Daily said, “Don’t forget that by crossing the strait from Fujian to Taiwan, they are showing Taiwan that there are so many countries supporting China.”
The article said that the April 3 meeting between Wang Yi and South Korean Foreign Minister Zheng Yiyong in Xiamen was particularly sensitive at a time when U.S.-China relations are tense over the Taiwan Strait, and that the main theme throughout Xi’s Fujian trip, Wang Yi’s talks with the Eastern Association and South Korean foreign ministers was “Taiwan.
The article points out that the third episode began with the Chinese military. On the same day that the Japanese and Chinese foreign ministers spoke, a Chinese navy spokesman announced that the Liaoning aircraft carrier and six other warships had been training in the waters “around Taiwan,” two days before the Chinese fleet passed through the waters between Okinawa and Miyako Island before heading south to the waters near Taiwan.
In the midst of the tension, Japan played the diplomatic card it could. Japan and Germany will hold their first diplomatic and defense 2+2 ministerial meeting in mid-April to discuss security cooperation to achieve a “free and open Indo-Pacific”.
Beijing is also highly alert to recent EU sanctions against China over human rights in Xinjiang, and Xi spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on July 7 to inform him of the multiple challenges facing Europe-China relations, and as Wang Yi told Shigeki, Xi hopes the EU will make the right judgment “independently.
Since the U.S.-China meeting in Alaska, Beijing has been making non-stop diplomatic efforts to avoid international isolation, and on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the normalization of relations between Japan and China next year, there is no doubt that relations between the two countries will also be deeply affected by the strong confrontation between the U.S. and China.
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