THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
November 10, 2023 at 15:03 JST
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, left, meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Bangkok in November 2022. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to meet on Nov. 16 on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco, sources said.
Japan hopes to break a deadlock in bilateral relations, which have soured over the release of treated radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
China banned imports of all Japanese seafood in August to protest the water discharge into the sea.
In September, Kishida urged Chinese Premier Li Qiang to immediately remove the embargo when they had a brief conversation in Indonesia.
If Kishida and Xi meet during the APEC summit, which will be held from Nov. 15-17, it will be their first face-to-face summit since one held in Bangkok last November.
Kishida is expected to reiterate Japan’s position on the safety of the water release program and call for the ban to be lifted.
China will likely demand that Japan refrain from interfering in its relations with Taiwan and make concessions on the water discharge issue as conditions for Xi meeting with Kishida.
“There is no point in Xi agreeing to a meeting (with Kishida) if all they do is meet,” a diplomatic source said.
As for Xi’s trip to San Francisco, China is attaching the highest priority to a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden, which is expected on Nov. 15.
A summit with Japan is a lower priority also because a trilateral meeting among Li, Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is expected to be held by the end of the year.
Takeo Akiba, secretary-general of the National Security Secretariat, visited China on Nov. 9 in an apparent effort to make final arrangements for a Kishida-Xi summit.
Akiba told reporters on the night of Nov. 9 that he held a three-and-a-half-hour meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, a Politburo member who is the country’s top diplomat.
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