Japan’s Foreign Minister Visits China for the First Time in Three Years Amid Turbulent Relations

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) listens as Japan's Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi (R) makes opening remarks during a meeting of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) foreign ministers in Melbourne on February 11, 2022. Photo by Sandra Sanders/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi visited China on April 1. The visit came as the Japanese government announced restrictions on the export of 23 types of semiconductor manufacturing equipment. This is also a time of significant tensions between the two countries because a Japanese employee of Astellas Pharma, a Japanese multinational pharmaceutical company in China, was arrested by the Chinese regime on suspicion of espionage.

Yoshitomo Hayashi was the first Japanese foreign minister to visit China in over three years.

On March 31, just one day before the visit, the Japanese government announced that Japan would restrict exporting 23 types of semiconductor manufacturing equipment starting in July, which may affect Japanese companies, including Nikon and Tokyo Electron. Those leading semiconductor equipment manufacturers would need permission from the Japanese government to export cutting-edge technology.

Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Nishimura Yasutoshi said the measures were not intended to be country-specific. He only emphasized the need for manufacturers to obtain prior export permission if they seek to export equipment to any region. He also said that Japan decided to prevent these advanced technologies from being used in the military.

On the same day Japan announced the export restrictions, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials claimed that Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshitomo Hayashi’s visit to China was at the invitation of CCP State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang and that China values the visit. The CCP also referred to China and Japan as important neighboring countries and emphasized that maintaining healthy and stable relations between the two countries is in their common interest.

On March 27, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said that the CCP’s State Security Department had arrested a Japanese citizen in China on suspicion of espionage. In response to Japan’s call for release, Mao said the man’s freedom must be done per the law.

Japan’s Export Restrictions Are Inevitable

According to U.S.-based political and economic analyst Lu Yuanxing, Japan’s announcement of export restrictions after the CCP arrested a Japanese citizen and before the Japanese Foreign Minister’s visit to China is a sign of Japan’s position of not showing weakness to the Chinese regime.

A monitor displaying a virtual meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden (top L), Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison (bottom L), Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga (top R), and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi (bottom R) is seen during the virtual Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) meeting, at Suga's official residence in Tokyo on March 12, 2021. Kiyoshi Ota / POOL / AFP

Lu told The Epoch Times: “Some may think the time is a coincidence, but that is not the case. If Japan had shown weakness, the Japanese Foreign Minister could have gone to China and tried to secure their own citizen’s release before announcing the export restrictions, but Japan did not do that. I believe it’s not a coincidence that Japan is making its position clear—it won’t show weakness to the CCP’s intimidation. This was a clear statement to the Chinese regime.”

Lu further explained that the CCP’s approach would only show the international community how unreliable China is, further isolating itself and pushing Japan to the U.S. camp.

Wang He, a China expert and current affairs commentator in the United States told The Epoch Times on April 2 that Japan’s announcement to restrict the export of 23 types of semiconductor manufacturing equipment is inevitable.

In March 2021, the U.S. Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense and the Japanese Foreign Minister and Defense Minister met and together stated that China’s behavior was inconsistent with the current international order and posed a threat to the international community, and expressed concerns over Taiwan, the South China Sea, and Xinjiang. Such a statement was met with furious rebuke from then-Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian. In August 2022, when the CCP staged military exercises around Taiwan, five missiles landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone, causing Japan great concern.

“In this situation, when Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida came to power in 2022, he adopted a confrontational position against the CCP,” Wang said. Japan has adopted a new National Security Strategy and plans to increase defense spending to 2 percent of Japan’s GDP by 2027. Japan seeks to contain China’s technology developments through disassociation with China, aligning with the U.S. strategy.

Japan Cuts Export of Photolithography Equipment to China Right After Dutch Restrictions

Japan, the United States, and the Netherlands are the three leading chip equipment manufacturers needed by the CCP. Last October, the Biden administration announced a chip-export ban on China, restricting the CCP’s access to advanced chips for weapons and its military logistics. The White House urged Japan, the Netherlands, and other allies to follow suit.

A view of a lens used to manufacture semiconductor circuits at ASML, a Dutch company currently the largest supplier of semiconductor manufacturing machines via photolithography systems in Veldhoven, Netherlands, on April 17, 2018. Emmanuel Dunand/AFP via Getty Images

In January, the United States, Japan, and the Netherlands reached an agreement in Washington to expand chip export controls against China, with Japan and the Netherlands making arrangements to implement their controls.

More than a month after the agreement with the United States, on March 8 of this year, the Netherlands announced that it would formally join the United States in imposing new export controls on specific semiconductor manufacturing equipment, including the most advanced deep ultraviolet lithography (DUV) in the semiconductor industry. The move was to protect Dutch national security.

In a letter to Dutch parliamentarians, Dutch Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Liesje Schreinemacher said, “In light of technological developments and the geopolitical context, the (Dutch) government has concluded that it is necessary to extend existing export controls on specific semiconductor production equipment for the sake of national security.”

On the same day as the Dutch announcement, news broke in the Chinese industry that a major Japanese photoresist manufacturer had implemented the U.S. restrictions and cut off the supply of KrF resists to a Chinese company.

Photoresist is a crucial material required in the process of semiconductor chip manufacturing. According to China’s icsmart tech news site, China’s self-sufficiency rate of KrF photoresist is less than 5 percent. In contrast, high-end ArF photoresist relies on imports, one of China’s significant hurdles in domestic semiconductor production.

Last May, Eric Johnson, CEO of Japanese semiconductor manufacturer JSR, said that despite China’s efforts to promote chip self-sufficiency, the essential infrastructure for China’s semiconductor industry needs to be improved. It is challenging to master complex chip manufacturing technology based on extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, and developing chip manufacturing technologies for advanced processes will be very difficult.