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On September 25, 1972, a Japanese special plane carrying a huge visiting group landed in Beijing. This is the first time that a Japanese plane has entered Beijing after World War II. The crew included then Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka and Foreign Minister Masahiro Ohira and others.
Tanaka Kakuei then met with Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and other CCP leaders, and signed the Sino-Japanese Joint Statement at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on September 29. The People’s Republic of China and Japan have officially established diplomatic relations since then. Japan recognizes the People’s Republic of China as the sole legitimate government of China.
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In August 1978, China and Japan further signed the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Peace and Friendship. Two months later, then Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping visited Japan, which was the first visit by a Chinese state leader after World War II.
Deng Xiaoping said that the friendly relations between China and Japan “should continue to develop”, adding that “the two countries will continue to be friendly from generation to generation”. Emperor Showa also said: “Although the history of the two countries has been unfortunate for a while, I look forward to promoting the friendship between the two countries in the future.”
During the visit, Deng Xiaoping took the Shinkansen train. He described to reporters: “I just felt fast, and it meant to urge people to run.” During a visit to the Panasonic electrical factory, he admitted to the founder of Panasonic that the modernizing China needs foreign investment and technology, and he hopes Panasonic can “help a little bit”.
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After the “June 4th” crackdown, China was sanctioned by many countries, and about a year later, Japan announced that it would resume government loans to China. In 1991, the then Prime Minister Toshiki Kaibe was the first leader of developed countries in the West to visit Beijing.
In April 1992, Jiang Zemin, then general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, visited Japan. In October of the same year, Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko visited China, which was the first visit by a Japanese emperor in history.
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In May 1995, the then Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama visited China and visited the Lugou Bridge and the Memorial Hall of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression.
August 15th of that year was the 50th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II. Tomiichi Murayama issued a statement acknowledging that Japan had carried out colonization and aggression, which had brought losses and pain to the people of many Asian countries, and expressed deep self-reflection and apology for this.
Murayama’s statement, which was later dubbed the “Murayama Talk,” was affirmed by Beijing.
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In 1996, the dispute between China and Japan over the sovereignty of the Diaoyu Islands (called the Senkaku Islands in Japan) heated up. China is dissatisfied with the Japanese government’s inclusion of the Diaoyu Islands in the “exclusive economic zone” and the construction of a lighthouse by Japanese right-wing groups on the Diaoyu Islands. Nearly 10,000 people held anti-Japanese demonstrations in Hong Kong. Anti-Japanese rallies also took place in many Chinese colleges and universities.
On September 22, Chen Yuxiang, the convener of the “Global Chinese Alliance for Protecting Diaoyu”, and many others rented the freighter “Diao Diao” to set off from Hong Kong, planning to land on the Diaoyu Islands to take an oath of sovereignty and demolish the Japanese lighthouse on the island. However, due to the strong wind and waves that day and intercepted by Japanese warships, Chen Yuxiang went into the water and drowned while preparing to swim on the island.
On October 7, the Diaoyuers from Taiwan and Hong Kong once again organized the “Preservation of Diaoyu” operation and landed on the Diaoyu Islands.
In September 2003, a tour group of a Japanese construction company hired a large number of prostitutes for three days at the Zhuhai International Conference Center Hotel in Guangdong Province, China. According to reports, there were nearly 300 people in the tour group, and more than 300 “escorts” were employed.
As the incident happened near the anniversary of the “9.18” Incident, it caused strong indignation among the Chinese people, and was even described by some as “another national humiliation”. The then Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing summoned the Japanese ambassador to China.
Later, a Chinese court held 14 Chinese nationals accountable, two of them were sentenced to life imprisonment, and three Japanese were wanted.
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After Junichiro Koizumi took office as Japanese prime minister in 2001, his visit to the Yasukuni Shrine worsened Sino-Japanese relations. From March to April 2005, large-scale demonstrations and protests took place in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Chongqing, Guangzhou and other places in China.
Boycotts of Japanese goods were launched in some places, and protests in others turned into riots, with Japanese restaurants and Japanese cars vandalized. The Japanese embassy in Beijing was also attacked with stones by the marchers.
The protest was sparked by multiple triggers, including the Japanese government’s approval of revisions to history textbooks accused of covering up war crimes, and Japan’s bid to join the UN Security Council as a permanent member.
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In 2006, Shinzo Abe was elected president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, becoming Japan’s youngest prime minister after World War II. His first foreign visit was in China, hoping to mend the deterioration of Sino-Japanese relations due to the Koizumi government’s visit to the Yasukuni Shrine.
In 2008, a huge earthquake occurred in Sichuan, China. China asked Japan for help. Three days later, the Japanese rescue team became the first foreign professional rescue team to arrive in the disaster area after the earthquake.
It is worth mentioning that in 2010, China’s economic aggregate surpassed that of Japan and became the second largest economy in the world. This is the first time in 42 years that Japan has lost its status as the world’s second largest economy.
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In 2012, when Shintaro Ishihara, the then governor of Tokyo, Japan, initiated the purchase of the Diaoyu Islands (called the Senkaku Islands in Japan) from private hands to realize the nationalization of the Diaoyu Islands, Sino-Japanese relations quickly became tense again.
In August of that year, some Hong Kong activists driving fishing boats to the Diaoyu Islands to declare their sovereignty were detained by the Japanese Okinawa police, and then Japanese right-wingers also landed on the Diaoyu Islands.
From late August to September, anti-Japanese demonstrations broke out in many cities in China, and protests in many places turned into violent smashing and smashing activities.
At the end of 2012, Shinzo Abe was re-appointed as Japanese Prime Minister. During his eight years in power, the Abe government has toughened up on defense and relations with China, and has paid homage to the Yasukuni Shrine. Shinzo Abe actively seeks to amend the pacifist constitution, strengthen Japan’s military capabilities, lift the ban on the right to collective self-defense, and strengthen the Japan-US alliance. When Shinzo Abe visited China in 2014, he was greeted indifferently by Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Inside China, officials have begun to criticize some people for being “spiritual Japanese” (spiritual Japanese). Several Chinese people who took photos in Japanese military uniforms during World War II were criticized or detained. In 2018, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi publicly criticized the “Jingri” elements at a press conference as “the scum of the Chinese people.”
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In the post-Abe era, Sino-Japanese relations are showing signs of tension again. The main reasons include Japan’s criticism of China over the human rights issues of Uyghurs in Hong Kong and Xinjiang. There has been no high-level exchange of visits between the two countries for three years.
A few days before the opening of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, Japan’s lower house of parliament passed a resolution expressing concern over the “serious human rights situation” in China, calling on the government of Fumio Kishida to take measures.
This is underscored by the jubilant reaction of the Chinese internet following the assassination of Shinzo Abe in July 2022. This year, a number of social events related to Japan have also caused fierce controversy, including the cancellation of Japan’s “Summer Festival” cultural activities in many places in China, the Nanjing temple was accused of “enshrining” the tablets of Japanese war criminals in World War II, and Chinese women wearing kimonos He was taken away by the police for questioning in Suzhou.