Strategic autonomy key to good trilateral ties: China Daily editorial

Following Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's meeting with former Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi in Jakarta in mid-July, and ROK President Yoon Suk-yeol expressing on multiple occasions Seoul's willingness to help resume the China-ROK-Japan meeting mechanism, there has been speculation that the vice-ministerial-level meetings of the three countries will be resumed. Reports have now emerged suggesting that a meeting is due to be held in Seoul on Tuesday.

The meeting mechanism was initiated in 2007 and was suspended because of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019. An important reason why it has not been resumed till now is the divisive efforts of the United States to unite its anti-China front in East Asia by brokering a "reconciliation" between the Fumio Kishida government of Japan and the Yoon Suk-yeol government of the Republic of Korea.

Although both Seoul and Tokyo have expressed their respective willingness to push for the resumption of the trilateral communication mechanism, both the ROK and Japan are part of the US' chip alliance, as well as regional security alliance network, both of which target China.

US President Joe Biden hosted Kishida and Yoon at Camp David in Maryland last month, effectively consolidating the anti-China troika in East Asia. So whether the mooted Tuesday gathering in the ROK capital can bear any fruit if it does take place will largely depend on the extent to which Seoul and Tokyo can shun the influence of the US.

The meeting, should it materialize, will be held at a time when there has been a slight thaw in what were rapidly freezing relations between China and the US after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Beijing in June. But it must be pointed out that the US has never ceased tightening its tech export controls targeting China nor its provocative military moves in the Asia-Pacific. So what substantial progress can be expected in relations between China and its two neighbors that are string-tied to Washington is open to conjecture.

Their one-sided pro-US diplomacy recently earned Kishida and Yoon the Profile in Courage Award from the US. That speaks volumes of the fact that even Washington knows that their attempts to make the most robust world growth engine a sacrificial lamb on the altar of US hegemony also face strong opposition and resistance from the public in Japan and the ROK.

As China-ROK-Japan trilateral ties stand at a crossroad, the latter two should exercise their strategic autonomy for real to honor their commitment to putting the relations back on the right track of healthy development.

China-ROK-Japan relations have to press forward, or they will slide backward. Beijing maintains continuity and stability in its policy of good-neighborliness and friendship toward both Japan and the ROK. Tokyo and Seoul need to show more foresight and stop portraying China as the greatest strategic challenge and hyping up the fabricated "China threat".

Being cooperative partners is in the best interest of all the three countries and the region at large.