Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks with reporters on Aug. 28 regarding the Chinese response to the discharge into the ocean of treated radioactive water. (Koichi Ueda)

China’s dismissal of Komeito’s peace overture shows that Sino-Japanese relations are spiraling out of control so quickly that it may take months, if not years, to restore ties to any semblance of normalcy.

Japanese government officials were surprised by Beijing’s furious reaction to the start last week of the discharge into the ocean of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

China immediately announced a ban on imports of all marine products from Japan.

The latest blow to relations was the cancellation of a planned trip to China by Natsuo Yamaguchi, head of Komeito, the junior partner in the ruling coalition.

Yamaguchi met with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Aug. 24 and later told reporters that he would visit China from Aug. 28 with a letter from Kishida for Chinese officials.

“Komeito has maintained exchanges with the Chinese Communist Party even when relations between the two governments were good or bad,” Yamaguchi said at that time. “This is the special characteristic and role of Komeito.”

However, sources said Chinese officials informed their Japanese counterparts on Aug. 26, after Chinese President Xi Jinping returned from an international conference in South Africa, that now was not an appropriate time for Yamaguchi to visit China.

That message was a sign that the highest levels of the Chinese administration are extremely displeased with the Fukushima water-discharge plan.

Chinese leaders have held Komeito in high regard because of the role the party played in negotiations leading up to the normalization of relations between Japan and China in 1972.

One diplomatic source in Beijing said Chinese officials could not provide a friendly atmosphere for a meeting with Yamaguchi, so the move to shelve his visit was one way of saving face for the Komeito leader.

But the source added, “This is also a display of the strong stance rejecting any political dialogue for the near future.”

Japanese officials had wanted Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to meet with Chinese Premier Li Qiang on the sidelines of ASEAN-related summits scheduled in Indonesia in early September.

But that appears highly unlikely now.

“We must recognize that China is implementing economic pressure and an information battle, and we must respond in a firm manner,” a high-ranking official in the prime minister’s office said. “This could be a drawn-out affair.”

(This article was written by Tamiyuki Kihara in Tokyo and Nozomu Hayashi in Beijing.)

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