This article examines forged residence-extension documents, illegal residency in regional Japan, former Chinese premier Li Peng’s reported remarks about Japan, the 1992 visit to China by Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress, the Tiananmen Square crackdown, and Zhou Enlai’s handling of the Senkaku issue.

They even went so far as to forge applications for extensions of stay.
According to Tadanobu Bando, such people were often found not in Tokyo but in regional areas of Japan.
Because regional police forces had fewer officers, it frequently took longer before their activities were detected.
The current issue of the monthly magazine WiLL contains a special dialogue titled “Know the True Nature of the Chinese,” featuring Masayuki Takayama, whom I regard as a unique journalist in the post-war world, and Tadanobu Bando, a former Tokyo Metropolitan Police detective and interpreter-investigator.
It is essential reading not only for the Japanese people but also for people throughout the world.
Unless one understands the principles governing the conduct of the other side, diplomatic negotiations based only on abstract reasoning will not provide the means to determine the next move.
The following continues from the previous chapter.
The dialogue contains forceful judgments about the character and conduct of Chinese people as a whole.
They are presented here as the views of Masayuki Takayama and Tadanobu Bando, based on their respective journalistic, investigative, and historical perspectives.
【Li Peng’s Astonishing Statement】
Bando
They even went so far as to forge applications for extensions of stay.
Such people were often found not in Tokyo but in regional areas.
Because there were fewer police officers in regional communities, it frequently took considerable time before their crimes were discovered.
Takayama
Their methods were cunning.
They lied without hesitation, deceived people, and showed no courtesy.
I remember being astonished by the words and conduct of Li Peng.
The Tiananmen Square crackdown of 1989 caused China’s international standing to collapse.
Seeking to recover the position it had lost, China arranged a visit to China by Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress of Japan.
Li Peng was the Chinese premier when the visit took place in 1992.
Two years later, according to the account introduced by Takayama, Li Peng met Australian prime minister John Howard and said the following:
“Japan’s present prosperity is only temporary—a flower that will bear no fruit. The generation of Japanese people who created that prosperity will soon have passed away. In another twenty years, Japan may no longer exist as a nation. It may have become a subordinate state of China, South Korea, or North Korea.”
Despite all the assistance China had received from Japan, Li Peng displayed no gratitude.
Even if such ingratitude were regarded as a common Chinese characteristic, it was extraordinary that a man holding the office of premier, after having been granted the honour of an audience with the Emperor, could remain so arrogant and apparently unaware of even the most elementary diplomatic courtesies.
Takayama stated that the rude and arrogant conduct of Li Peng symbolized the character he perceived in Chinese people.
Bando
In other words, Japan had served its purpose and was no longer needed.
Takayama
When Li Peng died in 2019, the Asahi Shimbun wrote:
“During the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident, as premier, he was deeply involved in the party leadership’s decision to impose martial law and suppress the students and other demonstrators.”
The passage appeared in an article dated July 23, 2019.
Instead of limiting itself to such sanitized wording, the newspaper should have described Li Peng’s true character: a man who could remain entirely composed after the killing of so many people.
Takayama argued that this attitude was shared by Chinese political leaders and, more broadly, reflected characteristics he associated with Chinese society.
Zhou Enlai, although occupying the second-highest position in the Communist government, also told Japanese prime minister Kakuei Tanaka during their talks:
“If we begin discussing this matter—the Senkaku issue—both sides will have so much to say that the summit will never end. Let us therefore avoid addressing it on this occasion.”
Tanaka was reportedly stunned when he heard Zhou’s statement.
Takayama argued that Tanaka should have terminated the summit and returned to Japan.
To be continued.