China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi just can’t get it right. First, Yi got China embarrassed in Europe, then also got his country humiliated during his five-nation Southeast Asia visit. And now when Xi Jinping sent him to Japan to somehow secure an ever-elusive Tokyo visit, the Chinese Foreign Minister simply butchered the opportunity.
Wang Yi visited Japan in the hope that he would be able to save Xi Jinping’s face, by securing a Tokyo visit for the Chinese President, which stands postponed from the spring due to the Coronavirus outbreak. However, Yi’s Japan visit got hijacked by hostile remarks over the Senkaku Islands dispute. A lot of things were said and it seems that the only highlight of Yi’s visit is the Senkaku Islands dispute.
We are, therefore, back to square one. Xi still wants to visit Tokyo and repair Sino-Japanese ties. But Tokyo simply won’t invite him. The Yoshihide Suga government is giving a cold shoulder to China and killing any possibility of a Sino-Japanese rapprochement.
It is not a matter of surprise that even after Yi ended his Japan visit and left for South Korea, Japan is still discussing the Senkaku Islands. On Friday, Motegi rejected his Chinese counterpart’s remarks claiming the paper dragon’s sovereignty over Japan’s Senkaku Islands as “totally unacceptable”. “The Senkaku Islands are without doubt our country’s inherent territory historically and under international law,” Motegi told a Parliamentary Committee.
In fact, during Yi’s visit, Japan’s Senkaku Islands and Chinese transgressions into the waters surrounding them in the East China Sea became the only talking point.
During a joint news conference following their meeting on Tuesday, the Japanese Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu humiliated Wang Yi publicly. Motegi raised the uncomfortable Senkaku Islands issue. The Japanese Foreign Minister made it clear that he explained Tokyo’s stance on the said islands in the East China Sea. He further urged China to act on this issue in a constructive manner.
Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato, who also met Wang Yi, told reporters, “The situation is extremely serious.” Kato added, “I conveyed (to Wang) our concerns about the activities of the Chinese government ships around the islands and asked for positive steps by China.”
Kato further disclosed that the Japanese government protested earlier on Wednesday when Chinese vessels entered Japan’s contiguous zone close to its territorial waters for the 306th time this year. And to China’s utter dismay, Kato also raked up the Hong Kong issue. The Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary disclosed that he raised concerns over the situation in Hong Kong, where China has gone out of its way to interfere in the city’s internal matters and rob it of its basic freedoms.
Yi’s Japan visit was a huge flop even by his own dubious standards. The Chinese Foreign Minister was expecting a welcome initiative by Tokyo to invite Xi Jinping for a Tokyo visit and repair bilateral ties. But Japan’s top political echelons were ready with a series of diplomatic shocks that have killed every possible chance of Xi Jinping’s Japan visit. China’s Foreign Minister has therefore managed to embarrass the Middle Kingdom all over again.
