Japan's ruling party calls for government to cancel Xi visit

Tokyo: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling party has adopted a resolution urging the government cancel a visit to Japan by Chinese President Xi Jinping following the implementation of a new national security law for Hong Kong.

“We have no choice but urge (the government) to cancel President Xi’s state visit,” the Liberal Democratic Party’s diplomatic panel chief Yasuhide Nakayama told reporters Tuesday.

The resolution also condemned Beijing’s implementation last week of the national security law for semi-autonomous Hong Kong. The new law makes secessionist, subversive, or terrorist activities illegal, as well as foreign intervention in the city’s internal affairs.

Critics see it as Beijing’s boldest step yet to erase the legal firewall between the former British colony and the mainland’s authoritarian communist system.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, the top spokesman for Abe’s government, said the timing was not appropriate to arrange details of Xi’s visit and nothing has been decided.

Suga said the government’s position is that Japan and China should resolve outstanding issues through high-level talks including those between the leaders. He declined to comment on the possible impact of the resolution on Japan-China relations.

China has already criticized Japan for its recent expressions of regret over Beijing’s approach to Hong Kong.

Xi’s Japan visit, initially planned for this spring, had to be postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. But China hawks in the ruling party have repeatedly raised issues over Abe’s invitation of Xi as a state guest, particularly amid unrest in Hong Kong since last year.

Abe has made improved Japan-China ties one of his main diplomatic goals, and any cancellation might thwart his plans.

Japan and China have long disputed over wartime history, ownership of a cluster of islands and undersea deposits in the East China Sea.