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2025 May 14 - 20 [PEACE]

Shii at symposium: Adherence to ‘not posing a threat to each other’ is fundamental to East Asian peace

Japanese Communist Party Central Committee Chair Shii Kazuo on May 17 appeared as a panelist at a symposium in Fukuoka City where he and other panelists discussed peacebuilding in East Asia.

Given that Okinawa and the Kyushu region are on the “first lines” of war preparations and that the U.S. military and Japan’s Self-Defense Forces are being reinforced, Shii in the discussion stressed that a forward-looking improvement in Japan-China relations will be a major key to creating a genuine peace in East Asia.

He reported that during his stay in China between April 27 and April 29 as a member of the Japan-China Parliamentarians’ Friendship League delegation, he presented the JCP proposals, “for a positive breakthrough in Japan-China relations” and “for peacebuilding in East Asia,” to the Chinese side, and that he emphasized the importance of adhering to the principle, “two sides are partners and are not threats to each other,” as agreed upon in the 2008 Japan-China Joint Statement. He added that he, at the same time, suggested that China exercise self-restraint in changing the status quo in the East China Sea by force and resolve the Taiwan issue peacefully.

Shii noted that Japan stopped referring to the principle, “not posing a threat to each other,” after the 2019 Japan-China Summit Meeting. This is because, he said, the government thinks it would hinder Japan’s massive military buildup which is based on the three key national security documents.

The United States in 2008 had a “policy of engagement” toward China. At some point in the 2010s, however, it began to see China as a potential threat and shifted to a policy of military deterrence, military encirclement, and economic containment. Shii added that this is also the reason why Japan no longer refers to the principle of “not posing a threat to each other.”

Shii said that if Japan adhered to its commitment to this principle, it should abandon its planned arms buildup as well as its attempt to possess capabilities to attack enemy bases, and it should call on China to refrain from or halt its moves to change the status quo by coercion in the East China Sea.

He stated, “Both Japan and China should prevent themselves from falling into a vicious cycle of military confrontation and should foster truly friendly and cooperative relations with each other. This is absolutely fundamental to peacebuilding in East Asia.”

Past related article:
> JCP CC Chair at talks between Japanese lawmakers’ group and CPC senior officials speaks about peacebuilding in East Asia [April 30, 2025]