China’s top envoy to Japan has warned Tokyo against using better ties with Beijing as a hedge against uncertainty in its ties with Washington.
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On the sidelines of the annual “two sessions” in the Chinese capital last week, ambassador to Tokyo Wu Jianghao said Japan’s relationships with the United States and with China were equally important.
“It is wrong and undermines the foundations of China-Japan relations to [use China to] hedge against changes in the US and great uncertainties in the US-Japan alliance,” Wu said.
“Both China and Japan are major powers on the global stage … Sino-Japanese relations and Japan-US relations should not be seen as antagonistic or conflicting with one another.”
Wu said Beijing did not make any demands about the Japan-US alliance and did not even consider it as a problem when diplomatic relations were normalised decades ago.
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“But, it is vital that the alliance not be used as a means to confront and contain China,” he said.