China stated on Friday that it has established a direct military hotline with Japan to handle marine and aviation issues.
“The two sides have recently completed the building of a direct telephone line for the sea-air liaison mechanism, and will continue to communicate on the launch arrangement,” China’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.
“The construction of the direct telephone line would effectively deepen communication channels between China’s and Japan’s defense departments, strengthen the two sides’ capacity to manage and control marine and air crises, and help further safeguard regional peace and stability.”
Earlier on Friday, Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi announced a two-day trip to China beginning on Saturday.
Hayashi stated that he will meet with his Chinese colleague Qin Gang to discuss a “stable and constructive Japan-China partnership.”
Beijing has also confirmed the planned trip.
Hayashi stated that the Japan-China relationship “has a lot of potential, but we also have a lot of challenges and concerns.”
“In this situation, it is increasingly vital to develop a constructive and secure connection in which what must be expressed will be asserted… “We want responsible behavior,” he said during a news conference in Tokyo.
This will be the first visit to China by a Japanese foreign minister since December 2019, as well as the first meeting of their top diplomats since November 2020.
Hayashi’s visit comes after China jailed an employee of the Japanese pharmaceutical giant Astellas Pharma in Beijing earlier this month on suspicion of espionage.