Embassy of China, Tokyo

Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Japan
中华人民共和国驻日本大使馆 (Chinese)
駐日中華人民共和国大使館 (Japanese)
Map
LocationMoto-Azabu, Minato, Tokyo, Japan Japan
AmbassadorWu Jianghao
Websitejp.china-embassy.gov.cn/chn/

The Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Japan (Chinese: 中华人民共和国驻日本大使馆; Japanese: 駐日中華人民共和国大使館) is the official diplomatic mission of the People's Republic of China to Japan. The current ambassador is Wu Jianghao.

History

China-Japan Memorandum of Understanding Trade Office Liaison Office in Tokyo is the unofficial diplomatic office of China in Tokyo before normalization. This office was established in August 1964.

The agency was originally named "Liao Chengzhi Liaison Office in Tokyo". From April 14 to 18, 1964, Liao Chengzhi's office and Tatsunosuke Takasaki's office held talks on the mutual dispatch of representatives and the establishment of liaison offices. The two sides reached an agreement on mutually sending representatives and setting up liaison offices. The two parties have successfully established liaison offices in each other's country, with the "Liaison Office of Liao Chengzhi Office in Tokyo" under China's Foreign Affairs Office, and the "Liaison Office of Takasaki Office in Beijing" under Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry.

In February 1968, when the two sides were negotiating on an annual agreement, both agreed to a renaming of the offices to a "memorandum of trading offices" in each country. On November 27, 1972, the closing ceremony of the memorandum of understanding was held at the Beijing Hotel. On December 31, 1972, the liaison office in Beijing was officially closed. One member of the office was transferred to the Japanese Embassy in China, another was transferred to the Liaison Office of the Japan-China Trade Association in Beijing, with the rest returning to Japan. On January 21, 1974, the liaison office in Tokyo also closed, where the organization merged into the Commercial Office of the Chinese Embassy in Japan.[1]

On September 29, 1972, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai and Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka signed a joint statement formulated by the two governments in Beijing, which officially formalized the normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries.[2] Soon after, the two respective embassies opened.[3] On February 1, 1973, the embassy officially opened while the building was still being built, and so the diplomatic office was temporarily located in the Hotel New Otani Tokyo. After the building was completed, the embassy moved to the building in Moto-Azabu.[4]

List of Ambassadors

Name (English) Name (Chinese) Tenure begins Tenure ends Note
Chen Chu 陈楚 April 1973 December 1976 [5]
Fu Hao 符浩 August 1977 February 1982 [5]
Song Zhiguang 宋之光 March 1982 August 1985 [5]
Zhang Shu 章曙 September 1985 June 1988 [5]
Yang Zhenya 杨振亚 January 1988 March 1993 [5]
Xu Dunxin 徐敦信 December 1992 June 1998 [5]
Chen Jian 陈健 April 1998 July 2001 [5]
Wu Dawei 武大伟 July 2001 August 2004 [5]
Wang Yi 王毅 September 2004 September 2007 [5]
Cui Tiankai 崔天凯 September 2007 January 2010 [5]
Cheng Yonghua 程永华 February 2010 May 2019 [5]
Kong Xuanyou 孔铉佑 May 2019 February 2023 [5]
Wu Jianghao 吴江浩 February 2023 [6]

Controversy

On the evening of April 29, 2021, a day after US President Joe Biden emphasized the superiority of democracy in his State of the Union speech, the Chinese Embassy in Japan published a post on Twitter satirizing American democracy. The picture shows a grim reaper dressed in imitation of the American flag opening the door in order, and the door has Middle East countries such as Iraq, Libya, and Syria written on it. Blood flows from the other side of the door, and the attachment reads "If the United States brings 'democracy', that's how it will be."[7] In less than 24 hours after posting however, the tweet was deleted.[8]

For such a tweet, some Japanese netizens questioned the authenticity of the tweet from the embassy, and others criticized it as being extremely tasteless. There were also some who countered the satire by posting the same picture, but with the American flag replaced with the Chinese flag. The words on the door showed Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong, knocking on a door called Taiwan.[9]

After seeing the picture, Israeli Ambassador to Japan Yaffa Ben-Ari said it was "demonizing" Israel. He and officials from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the Chinese Embassy to protest, and the Chinese Embassy deleted the tweet within an hour. According to media reports, the image shows the Star of David, a symbol of Judaism, painted on the sickle held by the Grim Reaper, and so was considered an anti-Semitic illustration.[10]

See also

References

  1. ^ "蔡成喜,中日备忘录贸易始末,百年潮2002年第11期". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2017-02-21.
  2. ^ "《中日联合声明》实现邦交正常化--观点--人民网". opinion.people.com.cn. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2017-06-22.
  3. ^ "中日复交谈判回顾". www.china.com.cn. Archived from the original on 2017-11-24. Retrieved 2017-06-22.
  4. ^ "共同社报道:日本外务省十四日决定:《中国驻日大使馆将使用旧台湾大使馆》". 参考消息. 1973-03-17. p. 4.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 驻日本国历任大使 [List of ambassadors of the People's Republic of China to Japan]. fmprc.gov.cn (in Chinese). 2019.
  6. ^ Funakoshi, Takashi (4 February 2023). "Veteran Japan hand to become China's next envoy to Tokyo". Asahi Shimbun.
  7. ^ "死に神の服に米国旗 在日中国大使館、画像をSNS投稿:朝日新聞デジタル". 朝日新聞デジタル (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2021-05-18. Retrieved 2021-04-30.
  8. ^ "米国を「死に神」になぞらえ揶揄 在日中国大使館がツイート - 記事詳細|Infoseekニュース". Infoseekニュース (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2021-05-01. Retrieved 2021-04-30.
  9. ^ "中国驻日大使馆推文讽美国死神 但自删". RFI - 法国国际广播电台 (in Simplified Chinese). 2021-04-30. Archived from the original on 2021-05-03. Retrieved 2021-04-30.
  10. ^ "中國使館急刪諷美漫畫原因曝光!誤踩「大地雷」惹怒以色列". 自由時報. 2021-05-03. Archived from the original on 2021-05-04. Retrieved 2021-05-03.