Ambassador Ju-il: "China to Participate in Tokyo China-Japan-Korea Summit"

The Chinese Ambassador to Japan announced that China will participate in the China-Japan-Korea summit to be held in Japan this year.

President Yoon Suk-yeol, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and Chinese Premier Li Qiang are taking a commemorative photo ahead of the 9th Korea-Japan-China Summit held at the Blue House State Guesthouse on May 27 last year. Photo by Yonhap News

According to Hong Kong Phoenix Satellite TV on the 11th, Wu Jianghao, the Chinese Ambassador to Japan who attended China's largest annual political event, the Two Sessions (the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference), told reporters the day before, "The (China-Japan-Korea) summit should be held," adding, "This year, Japan is the host country and is actively preparing. We will participate."

However, Mao Ning, spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was reserved when asked about Ambassador Wu's remarks during a briefing that day, saying, "Regarding the specific issues you (reporter) mentioned, including the summit, I currently have no information to provide."

When asked whether Wang Yi, head of the Chinese Communist Party Central Foreign Affairs Commission Office (also serving as Foreign Minister), who is the top diplomat of China, will visit Tokyo from the 21st to 23rd of this month to attend the China-Japan-Korea Foreign Ministers' Meeting, Mao did not give a direct answer but said, "China attaches great importance to China-Japan-Korea cooperation," and "We maintain active communication with Japan and Korea regarding matters related to this China-Japan-Korea Foreign Ministers' Meeting."

The China-Japan-Korea summit is a trilateral summit mechanism that began in 2008. After the 8th meeting in August 2019, it was not held for over four years until the 9th meeting was held in Seoul last May. The host country rotates in the order of Japan-China-Korea, so this year's meeting will be held in Japan.

So far, the President of Korea and the Prime Minister of Japan have attended. However, since Korea is currently in an impeachment political crisis, it is unclear who will attend this meeting.

Following convention, China is expected to send Premier Li Qiang, the 'second-in-command,' rather than President Xi Jinping.