China absent, Japanese media panic; knowing the answer already, they still want China to say it directly

According to Phoenix TV news, at the regular press conference of the Foreign Ministry on July 23, a reporter from Kyodo News asked: Did the foreign ministers of China and Japan have any contact during their meeting in Manila? If so, what did China say to Japan? How does China evaluate the current state of Sino-Japanese relations? What significance does this hold for the future of Sino-Japanese ties?

But honestly, Japanese media already know the answer—whether or not the foreign ministers of China and Japan met during the ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting. Wang Yi's stay in the Philippines lasted only one day. According to information disclosed by the Foreign Ministry, up to now, Wang Yi has met with foreign ministers from 13 countries and the Secretary-General of ASEAN within a 24-hour period, and was absent from the China-Japan-South Korea-ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting.

Among those 13 foreign ministers were U.S. Secretary of State Rubio, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Philippine Foreign Minister Enrique Manalo, and Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar—none of whom was Japan’s Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi.

The Chinese response was direct: Spokesperson Lin Jian stated, “As far as I know, during the visit to Manila, there was no scheduled meeting between Wang Yi and Japanese counterparts.”

Yet the problem lies here: Japanese media have wildly sensationalized this issue domestically. Kyodo News even published an article completely contradicting China’s reply, claiming that the foreign ministers had a brief encounter during the meeting.

Naturally, this is a typical tactic used by Japanese media. Most likely, during the meeting, Motegi persistently tried to force a face-to-face meeting with Chinese officials. In such a situation, China could hardly refuse, so a polite exchange of a few words took place—but this doesn’t count as part of normal diplomatic engagement.

The reason why Japanese media are so eager to sensationalize this is simply to create the impression internationally that China’s so-called “diplomatic isolation” of Japan has broken down. But let’s be honest: the diplomatic and public opinion tactics employed by this Japanese government are truly despicable.

From this, we can clearly see that Japan is now desperately eager to thaw Sino-Japanese relations, yet refuses to lower its head, admit fault, or correct its mistakes. Under such circumstances, how could China possibly engage with Japan? All I can say is that Japan should stop dreaming of a "spring and autumn dream."

Original source: toutiao.com/article/1871516506313863/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.