Disconnect between Tokyo's words and deeds: China Daily editorial

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's latest "softened" remarks on China represent a calculated attempt at rhetorical maneuvering. If Takaichi genuinely seeks dialogue with Beijing, she must start from retracting her erroneous and dangerous remarks on the Taiwan question. Otherwise, she is merely misleading the Japanese public and the international community to deflect growing criticism.

During the question-and-answer session at a news conference in Tokyo on Monday, Takaichi said her government had "consistently promoted a strategic mutually beneficial relationship with China and built a constructive and stable relationship". She also claimed that she looked forward to the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Economic Leaders' Meeting to be held in China later this year as an opportunity for dialogue.

Such statements ring hollow when she continues to evade the reasons why relations have soured and seeks to shift the blame onto others.

During Monday's news conference, when a TBS reporter claimed in his question that Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi "had held talks" with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Manila, Takaichi responded that "Japan was engaging with China at various levels", including through Motegi, and would continue communicating with the Chinese side.

However, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian had twice made it clear, the latest being on Monday, that no contact had taken place between the two foreign ministers in Manila.

It is absurd for the Japanese side to continue playing word games and pretend that communication between the two sides remains normal.

While dialogue between China and Japan is indeed necessary, the preconditions for that are clearly defined.

Takaichi's remarks on the Taiwan question in November last year crossed China's red line and triggered the downward spiral in bilateral relations. Not to mention that the series of China-targeted moves her government has taken in various fields ever since have further hurt bilateral ties.

While claiming to be advancing a mutually beneficial relationship and seeking a stable relationship with China, Tokyo simultaneously accelerates the revision of its national security strategy, expands military preparations targeting China, establishes quasi-alliance networks internationally against China, and tries to instigate proxy conflicts. Such moves will only further damage its credit and China-Japan relations.

Takaichi's relentless pursuit of a neo-militarist agenda, such as lifting the ban on the export of lethal weapons, has also contributed to her declining approval ratings, amid her failure to address the cost-of-living issues that are most concerning to ordinary Japanese people.

Takaichi's exacerbation of both domestic and international challenges for Japan means it is only natural she should be losing public support, especially after more and more Japanese people see through her dangerous policy.

Even as Takaichi claims to be repairing ties with China, Japanese media have revealed that right-wing forces in Japan are using paid recruits and large-scale AI-generated content to mass-produce disinformation, in a deliberate attempt to distort the history of Japan's aggression against China.

To put China-Japan relations back on a stable track, the Takaichi government must abandon its neo-militarist trajectory, adopt a correct view of history and approach China's development with reason and restraint. To that end, it needs to move beyond rhetorical maneuvers. Such duplicity — saying one thing while doing another — will only continue to drain the credibility of the Takaichi government. Tokyo has to demonstrate, through genuine action, a sincere commitment to regional peace and stability. Only then can it begin to rebuild the trust of its neighbors and the broader international community.