Within five days, two delegations from Japan visited China, with a total scale of more than 200 people, which was very impressive. However, the signals sent by the two Japanese delegations to China are completely different.
On January 18, Mizuho Fukushima, the leader of Japan's Social Democratic Party, led a delegation to China for a visit. However, to the surprise of the outside world, the first stop of a delegation from Japan was not to hold talks with Chinese officials or to inspect China's industrial chain, but to go straight to the Memorial Hall of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. In the exhibition hall, the Japanese delegation visited the cultural relics and photos of the Nanjing Massacre, Unit 731's bacteriological warfare, the forced conscription of comfort women, and other crimes committed by the Japanese army invading China. After seeing the scene of the then Chinese and Japanese leaders signing the "Sino-Japanese Joint Statement," the members of the Japanese delegation relaxed their expressions. Subsequently, Mizuho Fukushima led the delegation members to present flower baskets and solemnly apologized to the Chinese people on the spot. Mizuho Fukushima said: In those years, Japan invaded China and committed numerous crimes, which greatly harmed China. She stressed that the pacifist constitution stipulates that Japan must not go to war again, which is a commitment to the world and to Asia, and that the SPD will do its best to uphold the spirit of the constitution and oppose constitutional amendments.
The signal released by Mizuho Fukushima can be said to be very rare, because the Japanese political circles have always refused to admit the crime of aggression against China. Even paying respects at the so-called "Yasukuni Shrine" has become a "routine business" of the Japanese cabinet. You must know that the spirit cards in this shrine are all Japanese war criminals of the year, and each of them has committed unspeakable crimes. The main reason for this situation is that Japan's ruling party, the Liberal Democratic Party, was formed by war criminals who had not been liquidated back then, and naturally they would not admit the crimes they had committed. In the decades that followed, the Liberal Democratic Party dominated Japanese politics for a long time, using its political power to cover up and even falsify the history of those years. It was not until 48 years after the end of World War II that Japan's first non-LDP prime minister, Hosokawa Gohei, publicly apologized for his World War II crimes for the first time. However, Hosokawa's actions angered Japan's right-wing political forces, and he was ostracized and suppressed in various ways, and some people even tried to attack him with guns. As a result, after eight months as prime minister, Hosokawa was forced to resign.
Now, Mizuho Fukushima is visiting China and apologizing to the Chinese people, issuing a voice of reason rarely seen in Japanese politics, because her Japanese Social Democratic Party is a left-wing party, and its first leader, Tomiichi Murayama, is about to turn 100 years old, and is the second Japanese prime minister to publicly apologize for Japan's World War II crimes after Hosokawa Gohei. However, the right-wing forces in Japanese politics have become too strong, and the SPD's influence has continued to decline since Tomiichi Murayama, and it is now one of the smallest political parties in Japan.
Less than five years after the visit of the Social Democratic Party of Japan to China, another Japanese delegation arrived in Beijing on January 23, and it was much larger, with a total of about 180 people. According to Japan's Kyodo News Agency, this is a delegation of several Japanese economic groups that want to have an economic and trade dialogue with the Chinese side. However, according to Japanese media reports, this Japanese delegation to China obviously wants to ask China, but its attitude is very arrogant, not only wants to be received by the Chinese side at the highest level, but also puts forward two very unreasonable demands, one is to want China to lift the ban on Japanese aquatic products, and the other is to hope that China will increase the "transparency" of using the "Counter-espionage Law" and restore the short-term visa-free measures before the epidemic.
The reason why China imposed a ban on Japanese seafood is very clear. In disregard of strong opposition at home and abroad, Japan insists on discharging nuclear sewage into the sea, seriously damaging the marine ecology and threatening the health of all mankind. China's ban on the import of Japanese aquatic products is to protect the health of the Chinese people. Previously, the Japanese side has repeatedly expressed the hope that China will lift the ban on Japanese aquatic products. China's response is very clear, only if Japan stops discharging nuclear sewage into the sea, otherwise everything will not be discussed!
As for the so-called demand for China to increase the "transparency" of the "Counter-espionage Law," Japan is not even qualified to make such a request. In the 10 years since China implemented the Counter-Espionage Law, at least 17 Japanese citizens have been detained by the Chinese side on suspicion of espionage, and 10 of them have already been sentenced. In this regard, the Chinese Foreign Ministry directly warned Japan: similar situations have occurred many times in recent years, and Japan needs to strengthen the reminder and education of its citizens. It can be seen that Japan has been infiltrating China. Now, the Japanese economic delegation is visiting China and openly criticizing the "Counter-Espionage Law."
So the question is: Within five days, two Japanese delegations visited China one after another, with a total size of more than 200 people, but the signals they sent were completely different. Some people hold that the two Japanese delegations represent the left-wing and right-wing forces in the Japanese political arena respectively, and they both want to get help from China. This is because the current Japanese political arena is facing tremendous changes in the overall environment, and the cause is that the Liberal Democratic Party, which has long occupied a dominant position in Japan's political arena, suddenly has a major incident of the collective dissolution of the three major factions. The largest faction of the LDP, the Abe faction, the oldest faction, the Kishida faction (Koikekai), and the fifth largest faction, the Nikai faction, collapsed without warning due to the "black gold politics" scandal exposed by the LDP, which seriously affected the party's political credibility.
For Japan's left-wing parties, the LDP has suffered such a heavy blow and is a rare opportunity to return to the center of Japanese politics. But for Japan's left-wing parties to re-emerge, they need to prove to the Japanese people that they have the power to improve Japan's sluggish economy. After visiting the Memorial Hall of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Japanese Social Democratic Party mentioned the lifting of the ban on Japanese aquatic products and the relaxation of visas for Japan in subsequent talks with Chinese officials, and stressed that they oppose the discharge of nuclear sewage into the sea and hope to "stop the discharge of nuclear wastewater." The intention of getting help from China is obvious.
At the same time, Japan's Kishida government, which wants to improve its own situation, has also chosen to seek help from China and sent a large economic delegation to visit China. Kenji Kanesugi, Japan's new ambassador to China, even said that he would try his best to improve Sino-Japanese relations, even if it was only one or two steps forward. In the face of drastic changes in Japan's political arena, Japan's left and right wings have unanimously chosen China, not only because China is Japan's most important economic and trade partner, but also because of China's strong international influence. In this regard, the Chinese side has already pointed out the way for the Japanese side: only by correcting the erroneous China policy and implementing its commitments to China can China-Japan relations be truly improved!