China’s top diplomat Wang Yi accuses US of stoking tensions with Japan and South Korea

In thinly veiled swipe, Wang says Washington sows division in East Asia and creates ‘cliques’ to exclude others
He urges neighbours to adhere to ‘independence and self-reliance’ and avoid being swayed by outside influences

China-Japan relations

Xinlu Liang

Published: 8:08pm, 3 Jul 2023

Why you can trust SCMP

China’s top diplomat Wang Yi took a veiled swipe at the US for fanning anti-Beijing sentiment in Japan and South Korea and urged the two East Asian neighbours not to blindly follow Washington’s lead.

Speaking at a trilateral forum in China’s eastern port city of Qingdao on Monday, Wang told participants that the time had come for China, Japan and South Korea to “regroup and restart” cooperation.

But he warned that “a certain major power outside the region” had tried to sow discord and tension among the three neighbours.

“For geopolitical reasons, a certain major power outside the region has deliberately exaggerated our ideological differences, organised all kinds of cliques for the purpose of excluding others, tried to replace cooperation with confrontation, and unity with division,” Wang said in a thinly veiled criticism of the US.

“Asia is our common homeland, and we are neighbours who are not going anywhere,” he said, urging Tokyo and Seoul to resume cooperation with Beijing and to avoid being swayed by outside influences.

“In the past 10 years, China, Japan and South Korea have all advanced rapidly and successfully carried out modernisation,” Wang said. “The key is our emphasis on peaceful development … and understanding the different paths chosen by each other.”

The annual forum was organised by the Seoul-based Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat to promote peace and common prosperity among China, Japan and South Korea.

02:35

US President Biden defends calling Chinese leader Xi Jinping a ‘dictator’

Japan and South Korea have cosied up to the US in recent months, with analysts saying Washington has upped its efforts to woo Tokyo and Seoul as it competes with Beijing for influence in East Asia.

Nato also said it would forge closer ties with Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea under the auspices of the Individually Tailored Partnership Programme, a partnership mechanism to allow non-members to cooperate with the transatlantic security alliance.

“We respect Japan and South Korea’s development of relations with other countries in the world, but any such relationship cannot be used for the purpose of containing [the development] of their neighbours,” Wang warned on Monday.

Wang noted that China, Japan and South Korea issued the first Joint Declaration on the Promotion of Tripartite Cooperation in 2003 to boost trilateral cooperation and development in East Asia and maintain peace and prosperity in the region and globally.

“This is the original intention and mission of cooperation among the three countries,” he said.

“It is precisely with this original intention and mission that trilateral cooperation has grown from scratch to become the most influential subregional cooperation mechanism in the region, providing the impetus for modernisation and development of the three countries and Asia.”

“We must adhere to independence and self-reliance, unity and self-improvement. Facts have proved that only countries that can make decisions and initiatives independently will earn the respect of other countries,” Wang said.

“Only a united and self-reliant region can grow without external interference and achieve sustainable development.”

Wang’s criticism of Washington came two weeks after a fence-mending visit to Beijing by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. During his two-day visit, Blinken met Wang, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and President Xi Jinping.

However, tensions have ramped up again since the visit, with US President Joe Biden likening Xi to a “dictator” and the two sides accusing each other of being disrespectful.