President Xi Jinping Speaks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on the Phone

On October 8, 2021, President Xi Jinping had a phone conversation with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Xi Jinping stressed that China and Japan are close neighbors and quoted, "Benevolence and good-neighborliness are of great value to a country." Maintaining and developing friendly and cooperative relations between China and Japan is in the fundamental interest of the two countries and two peoples. It is also conducive to the peace, stability and prosperity of Asia and the world at large. At present, China-Japan relations are facing both opportunities and challenges. China appreciates the importance the new Japanese government attaches to maintaining high-level communication between the two countries. China stands ready to work with Japan to enhance dialogue and cooperation and promote the building of a China-Japan relationship that meets the requirements of the new era in the spirit of learning from history and creating a bright future. Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the normalization of China-Japan diplomatic ties. China hopes that the two sides will recall original aspirations and meet each other halfway to jointly embrace this significant historical juncture and open up new prospects for the development of bilateral relations.

Xi Jinping pointed that China and Japan should earnestly learn from both the positive and negative experience in bilateral relations, strictly observe the principles set out in the four political documents between the two countries, and effectively implement the political consensus that China and Japan are cooperative partners and not threats to each other. The two countries should properly handle major sensitive issues, such as historical issues and those concerning Taiwan, properly manage differences, and steer in the right direction to maintain the political foundation and overall situation of bilateral relations. The two sides should also strengthen exchanges on state governance and coordination on economic policy, jointly safeguard a fair and open environment for trade and investment, and achieve a higher level of complementation and win-win cooperation to bring more benefits to the people of both countries. The two sides should practice true multilateralism, carry forward the East Asian wisdom of seeking harmony without uniformity and working together, actively promote regional cooperation, coordinate the response to global challenges, and safeguard world peace, stability and development based on respective fundamental interests and the common interests of mankind. He also congratulates Japan on its successfully hosting the Tokyo Olympic Games and welcomes Japan to actively participate in the Beijing Olympic Winter Games in February next year.

Fumio Kishida extended his congratulations on China's National Day. He said that under the current international and regional circumstances, Japan-China relations are entering a new era. Japan is willing to work with China to draw important lessons from the history of bilateral relations and take the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations as an opportunity to make joint efforts in building a constructive and stable Japan-China relationship that meets the requirements of the new era. The two sides should manage differences through dialogue. Japan is ready to work with China to continuously strengthen economic cooperation and people-to-people exchanges and intensify communication and cooperation on major international and regional issues, such as COVID-19 response and climate change. Japan looks forward to the successful convening of the Beijing Olympic Winter Games.

Both sides deemed this conversation to be very timely and important and agreed to continue maintaining interaction and communication through various means to steer the development of bilateral relations in the right direction.