Many conservatives strongly questioned inviting Xi Jinping as a state guest. Yet according to former diplomat Shotaro Yachi, China had been making strong requests for several years. Learning from the failure after Tiananmen, Japan must conduct diplomacy that protects its national interest while fully understanding China’s true nature.

March 8, 2020
It is said that for two or three years, there had been an extremely strong request from the other side: “When His Majesty the Emperor accedes to the throne, we would like to be the first to visit and offer greetings as a state guest. At that time, we would very much like to be received with state-guest treatment.”
The following is a continuation of the previous chapter.
“Diplomacy ends at the water’s edge”
How should Japan deal with China?
For example, is it really acceptable, at this timing, to invite Xi as a state guest and have him granted an audience with His Majesty the Emperor?
I myself could not understand at all why Xi had to be invited as a state guest.
Hardly anyone in the conservative camp supports it.
When I met Prime Minister Abe and Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga, I told them this directly.
However, “diplomacy ends at the water’s edge.”
This applies to the ruling and opposition parties, and also to the government and private-sector commentators.
In other words, the responsibility of a commentator is to think calmly and thoroughly, and to raise issues.
Once the matter has been conveyed clearly to the prime minister, not in an ambiguous form, criticism should then be restrained.
That is because the government possesses overwhelmingly more information than we do.
Under such circumstances, on January 26, former diplomat Shotaro Yachi appeared on BS Fuji’s Prime News and referred to the treatment of Xi Jinping as a state guest.
According to Yachi, for two or three years, there had been an extremely strong request from the other side: “When His Majesty the Emperor accedes to the throne, we would like to be the first to visit and offer greetings as a state guest. At that time, we would very much like to be received with state-guest treatment.”
However, such an honor cannot be given to China or to Xi.
First, it was decided to invite Trump of the United States, Japan’s ally.
Since China could not be invited in the same year, it was decided to invite Xi as a state guest in 2020.
China is a neighboring country, and it is also a great power.
When one considers Japan’s national interest, it is essential to engage with China and face it in a proper form.
As Yachi said, I think Prime Minister Abe is steering a very difficult course.
After the Tiananmen Square incident, Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress visited China, which had been isolated.
That worked to China’s advantage and became the trigger for dismantling the international network of sanctions against China.
However, China enacted its Territorial Sea Law and, under Chinese domestic law, declared the Senkaku Islands to be Chinese territory.
Japan’s friendly diplomacy served no purpose at all.
Many are concerned that the same thing may happen again this time.
However, at that time it was the Miyazawa administration.
Did it have any basic strategy for Japan-China diplomacy and Japan-U.S. diplomacy?
Present-day Japan should understand China’s true nature better than Japan did then.
For example, in 2020, when Trump was elected president and Prime Minister Abe first visited Trump Tower, it is said that the prime minister spent most of the time lecturing him on the threat from China.
If he has such a real sense of the threat from China, then, in accordance with the phrase “diplomacy ends at the water’s edge,” my current position is that there is nothing left to do but trust him.
This essay continues.