Japan’s foreign minister urges China to release jailed national
A diplomat protests the recent jail sentence of a pharmaceutical company employee during a Japanese foreign minister’s first visit to Beijing in more than three years.
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi has met with his Chinese counterpart in Beijing and urged the government to immediately release an imprisoned Japanese.
Hayashi’s meeting with Qin Gang on Sunday marked the first visit to Beijing for a Japanese foreign minister in more than three years as the two rival Asian powers seek common ground at a time of rising regional tensions.
An Astellas Pharma employee has been detained in China for unknown reasons, a spokesman for the drugmaker said a week ago.
Five Japanese nationals are currently being held in China, two of whom have already been tried and found guilty, the Japanese foreign ministry said.
“I have protested the recent detention of a Japanese national in Beijing and strongly emphasized our position on this issue, including the early release of this national,” Hayashi told reporters.
Qin replied that China “can handle it [the case] according to the law,” said a reading of the meeting of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Hayashi said Japan is seeking transparency over the legal process related to detentions and has asked China to ensure a fair and safe business environment. He did not comment on China’s response.
“This happened when the Chinese government was trying to promote Japanese investment in China, and we see a discrepancy there,” Yukiko Okano, deputy press secretary of Japan’s foreign ministry, told reporters on Sunday, saying that this point was raised during his meetings. put forward by Hayashi. in Beijing.
The minister also brought Tokyo’s grave concerns about an increase in China’s military activity, including cooperation with Russia and its naval presence in the East China Sea, he said.
“We both affirmed the importance of continuing to have a dialogue on issues, including national security,” Hayashi said.
Hayashi said he talked to Qin about the “importance of ensuring peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.” Beijing said Qin warned Japan not to “interfere in the Taiwan issue or undermine China’s sovereignty in any way”, stressing that Taiwan is “at the core of China’s core interests”.
“Japan’s position has not changed, not with this comment and not in recent years,” Okano said when asked to comment on Beijing’s report.
Tensions are rising over Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own territory. China has never refrained from using force to bring Taiwan under its control. The democratically elected government in Taipei rejects Beijing’s claims, saying only the Taiwanese people should decide the future.
Japan also filed a diplomatic complaint in August after five ballistic missiles launched by the Chinese military fell into Japan’s exclusive economic zone near the disputed islands known as Japan’s Senkaku and China’s Diaoyu.
New restrictions
Tokyo on Friday announced export restrictions on semiconductor manufacturing equipment, following the lead of the United States. Qin warned his counterpart “not to play an accomplice for an evildoer”.
The curbs are in line with similar measures by the US and the Netherlands aimed at limiting China’s ability to make advanced chips.
Hayashi told reporters the restrictions are “not targeting any specific country.”
Despite their differences, China and Japan agreed to resume talks with South Korea, said Hayashi, who called the agreement “an important achievement” of his meeting with Qin.
“We have agreed to continue to communicate closely at various levels, including the ministerial and senior levels of the State Department,” Hayashi said.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chinese President Xi Jinping met on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in November, the first meeting between the two countries’ leaders in nearly three years.
The last Japanese foreign minister to visit China was Hayashi’s predecessor, Toshimitsu Motegi, in 2019, just before China imposed strict pandemic border controls.