Japan-China summit faces uncertainty ahead of APEC meeting

Beijing is still demanding that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi retract her Taiwan remarks despite a proposal to reaffirm the countries' 1972 joint communique, as hopes of an early summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping fade.

Former Japanese foreign minister Takeshi Iwaya put forward that approach during a September visit to China.

Reaffirming the communique, he proposed, could be treated as a de facto withdrawal of Takaichi's comments.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who also belongs to the Chinese Communist Party's Political Bureau, again demanded a retraction and maintained that the Japanese prime minister should resolve the issue herself.

Takaichi will travel to China for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders' summit, which China will host in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, on 18–19 November 2026.

“There'll be no (Japan-China) summit,” a senior Japanese Foreign Ministry official said of the prospects for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines.

“I don't think a summit is likely during the Takaichi administration,” the official added.

For the APEC chair, talks with other national leaders are customary.

Xi and then Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe held one such meeting at the 2014 summit in Beijing amid tensions that included Abe paying his respects at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo.

The shrine honours Class-A war criminals as well as the war dead and is regarded by China as a symbol of Japan's past militarism.

At the centre of the year-long dispute is Japan's right to collective self-defence in a survival-threatening situation.

Takaichi told the Budget Committee of the House of Representatives, Japan's lower parliamentary chamber, on November 7, 2025, that a Taiwan contingency “could constitute” such a situation.

Beijing has put pressure on Japan through rare earth export restrictions and calls for Chinese nationals to avoid travelling there.

Xi's administration treats Taiwan as a core interest and strongly protested Takaichi's apparent departure from her predecessors' approach.

“China has maintained a hard-line stance,” a senior Japanese government official observed.

Tokyo has been waiting for tensions to subside while reiterating that it will maintain the position adopted when diplomatic ties were normalised in 1972.

The 1972 Japan-China communique states that Japan fully understands and respects China's position regarding Taiwan.

At a Friday press conference, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara cited the document in maintaining that Japan's Taiwan stance “has not changed at all”.

The government is likely concerned that a retraction could disappoint Takaichi's conservative supporters, who are wary of Beijing.

Takaichi's response shortly after her original comments, delivered at a Budget Committee session, was that she would “refrain from making comments on specific cases from now on.”

When reporters asked about her Taiwan comments on Friday, Takaichi repeated her earlier explanation:

“China is an important neighbor. We'll promote strategic and mutually beneficial ties, and build a constructive and stable relationship.”