China Japan South Korea File photo:CGTN
Chinese Premier Li Qiang said on Monday at a trilateral meeting with leaders of Japan and South Korea which was held in Seoul, South Korea, that the three countries should stay committed to the original aspiration for cooperation and make joint efforts to resume and accelerate China-Japan-South Korea cooperation so as to make greater contributions to regional prosperity and stability.
Li made the remarks at the ninth Trilateral Summit Meeting among China, Japan and South Korea, where Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol attended, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
Chinese analysts said the three major economies in East Asia are trying to resume the trilateral cooperation from the fields of economy, trade and cultural exchanges where the three countries share broad common interests and similarities, while lay aside the difference in other tough topics including historic and sovereignty issues, as well as ideological differences.
Li also said at the meeting that the three countries should regard each other as partners and opportunities for development, and uphold economic globalization and free trade.
South Korean media Yonhap News Agency reported on Monday that the trilateral session discussed ways to promote cooperation in six specific areas - economy and trade, sustainable development, health issues, science and technology, disaster and safety management, and people-to-people exchanges.
The leaders also agreed to institutionalize the trilateral cooperation by holding the trilateral summit and ministerial meetings on a regular basis. Monday's session was the first three-way meeting since December 2019 after it was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic and historical disputes among the three Asian neighbors, said Yonhap. After the meeting, the three leaders attended a trilateral business summit at the Korea Chamber of Commerce & Industry.
Mao Ning, a spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said at a press conference on Monday that on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the trilateral cooperation mechanism, it is of great significance to hold the trilateral leaders' meeting again, marking "the restart of trilateral cooperation."
FTA negotiations
At the meeting, the Chinese premier called on the three countries "to deepen economic and trade connectivity, maintain the stability and smoothness of the industrial chain and supply chain, and resume and complete the negotiations of the China-Japan-South Korea free trade agreement (FTA) as soon as possible," Xinhua reported.
The three leaders agreed to resume talks on a three-way FTA, which were suspended in November 2019 following 16 rounds of official negotiations after they began in 2012. The leaders committed to ensure the "transparent, smooth and effective" implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). It is an FTA among 15 Asia-Pacific countries, involving the three nations, Yonhap reported on Monday.
China is the largest trading partner of South Korea and Japan, and together, they make up about 25 percent of the global gross domestic product and 20 percent of global trade.
Resuming China-Japan-South Korea FTA negotiations will help the three countries give full play to their economic complementarity, strengthen trade and investment cooperation and achieve foreign trade and economic growth against the backdrop of sluggish world economic growth and rising geopolitical tensions, Zhang Jifeng, a senior research fellow at the Institute of Japanese Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Monday.
"This is a good start for the China-Japan-South Korea economic and trade relations that have been negatively impacted by the pandemic and geopolitical conflicts over the past several years," Zhang said. There is great potential for the three countries to deepen cooperation in a variety of sectors including the digital economy, green economy, as well as industrial and supply chains, he added.
Zhang urged Japan and South Korea to refrain from following the US' unilateral moves aimed at containing China so as to maintain their own interests and jointly strive for stability and prosperity in Asia.
Mutually needed
Chinese analysts refuted certain Japanese media outlets' reports alleging that China has called for the restart of the FTA due to a "weakened economy," and stressed that China aims to make contributions to regional and global economic stability and recovery.
China's economic growth reached 5.3 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, signaling a stable economic rebound ahead. And, the country itself is a massive market. Once an FTA is reached, it will further strengthen trade and investment, bringing material benefits to companies and people from the three countries and contribute to economic integration, according to Zhang.
If the Japanese media said China's economy is "weakened" and is reaching out for help from Japan and South Korea, they should better look at Japan's data as the Japanese economy shrank 2 percent in the first quarter, said Chinese experts. According to Japanese media Kyodo News and CNN, Japan's economy contracted in the first quarter, squeezed by weaker consumption and external demand and throwing a fresh challenge to policymakers as the central bank looks to lift interest rates away from near-zero levels.
Preliminary GDP data from the Cabinet Office of Japan earlier this month showed Japan's economy shrank 2.0 percent annualized in the January to March months from the prior quarter, faster than the 1.5 percent drop seen in a Reuters poll of economists. Downwardly revised data showed GDP barely grew in the fourth quarter.
South Korean economic performance is better than Japan's, as it grew at the fastest pace in more than two years in the first quarter beating all estimates with a pick-up in domestic consumption and robust exports, but the market questioned if the recovery was sustainable, Reuters reported.
South Korea's GDP for the January-March quarter was 1.3 percent higher than the preceding three months on a seasonally adjusted basis, the sharpest expansion since the fourth quarter of 2021, data from the Bank of Korea showed.
Da Zhigang, director of the Institute of Northeast Asian Studies at the Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Monday that due to the impact caused by the Ukraine crisis and the following impacts on the global supply chain, all major economies around the globe are facing challenges, and the fact is that China, Japan and South Korea need each other despite that they have disputes and historic issues.
Strategic autonomy
The Chinese premier stressed that China, Japan and South Korea should uphold the spirit of strategic autonomy, maintain bilateral relations, promote a multipolar world, and oppose playing bloc or camp politics.
At the meeting, Li called for opposing turning economic and trade issues into political games or security matters, and rejecting protectionism as well as decoupling or the severing of supply chains.
The US has strong influences over Japan and South Korea, and this makes the two East Asian economies very difficult to push regional economic integration with China as Washington wants Tokyo and Seoul to serve its hegemonic purpose to contain China, said experts. But the experts also said that leaders from Japan and South Korea understand that bloc confrontation will only make the region more unstable and this will only bring disaster to everyone in the region.
Lü Chao, an expert on the Korean Peninsula at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Monday that "The US is with no doubt the biggest obstacle for the China-Japan-South Korea cooperation. Washington sees Tokyo and Seoul as its followers, and it will surely get upset when its two allies engage with its top competitor."
"The Japan-US and South Korea-US alliances are not based on equal relations, which are different from their ties with China. We hope Japan and South Korea can act like independent countries and make decisions based on their own national interests and the shared interests of the region," he noted.
中国国务院总理李强周一在韩国首尔举行的日韩领导人三边会晤中表示，三国应坚持合作初衷，共同努力恢复和加快中日韩合作，为地区繁荣稳定作出更大贡献。
中国分析人士表示，东亚三大经济体正试图从经济、贸易和文化交流领域恢复三边合作，三国有着广泛的共同利益和相似之处，同时搁置了历史和主权问题以及意识形态分歧等其他棘手问题。
李克强在会见中还表示，三国应视对方为发展伙伴和机遇，维护经济全球化和自由贸易。 韩国媒体韩联社周一报道称，三方会议讨论了如何促进经贸、可持续发展、健康问题、科学技术、灾害安全管理、人文交流等六个具体领域的合作。
两国领导人还同意通过定期举行三边峰会和部长级会议，使三边合作制度化。韩联社称，周一的会议是自2019年12月以来的首次三方会议，此前该会议因COVID-19大流行和三个亚洲邻国之间的历史争端而暂停。会后，三位领导人出席了在韩国商工会议所举行的三边商业峰会。 中国外交部发言人毛宁周一在新闻发布会上表示，在三边合作机制创建25周年之际，再次举行三方领导人会晤具有重要意义，标志着“三方合作的重启”。
自贸协定谈判
据新华社报道，中国总理在会上呼吁三国“深化经贸互联互通，保持产业链供应链稳定畅通，尽快恢复和完成中日韩自由贸易协定（FTA）谈判”。 三位领导人同意恢复三方自由贸易协定谈判，该谈判在2012年开始后进行了16轮正式谈判后于2019年11月暂停。领导人承诺确保《区域全面经济伙伴关系协定》（RCEP）的“透明、顺利和有效”实施。据韩联社周一报道，这是15个亚太国家之间的自由贸易协定，涉及这三个国家。
中国是韩国和日本最大的贸易伙伴，它们合计约占全球国内生产总值的25%和全球贸易的20%。 中国社会科学院日本研究所高级研究员张继峰表示，在世界经济增长乏力、地缘政治紧张局势加剧的背景下，恢复中日韩自贸协定谈判将有助于三国充分发挥经济互补性，加强贸易投资合作，实现对外贸易和经济增长。 周一告诉《环球时报》。
“对于过去几年受到疫情和地缘政治冲突负面影响的中日韩经贸关系来说，这是一个良好的开端，”张说。他补充说，三国在数字经济、绿色经济以及产业链和供应链等多个领域深化合作潜力巨大。 张敦促日韩不要追随美国遏制中国的单边行动，以维护自身利益，共同争取亚洲的稳定与繁荣。
中国分析人士驳斥了日本某些媒体的报道，称中国因“经济疲软”而呼吁重启自贸协定，并强调中国旨在为地区和全球经济稳定和复苏做出贡献。 中国一季度经济同比增长5.3%，预示着未来经济将稳步反弹。而且，该国本身就是一个巨大的市场。一旦达成自贸协定，将进一步加强贸易和投资，为三国企业和人民带来物质利益，为经济一体化做出贡献。
中国专家表示，如果日本媒体说中国经济“疲软”，并正在向日本和韩国寻求帮助，他们应该更好地看看日本的数据，因为日本经济在第一季度萎缩了2%。据日本媒体共同社和美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）报道，日本经济在第一季度收缩，受到消费和外部需求疲软的挤压，并给政策制定者带来了新的挑战，因为央行希望将利率从接近零的水平上调。 日本内阁府本月早些时候公布的初步GDP数据显示，日本经济在1月至3月的年率环比下降2.0%，快于路透社对经济学家的调查中1.5%的降幅。向下修正的数据显示，第四季度GDP几乎没有增长。
据路透社报道，韩国经济表现好于日本，第一季度以两年多来最快的速度增长，国内消费回升和出口强劲，超过了所有预期，但市场质疑复苏是否可持续。 韩国央行的数据显示，经季节性调整后，韩国1月至3月季度的GDP比前三个月增长1.3%，这是自2021年第四季度以来的最大增幅。 黑龙江省社会科学院东北亚研究所所长达志刚周一对《环球时报》表示，由于乌克兰危机造成的影响以及以下对全球供应链的影响，全球所有主要经济体都面临挑战，而事实是，中国， 日本和韩国尽管存在争端和历史问题，但彼此需要对方。
战略自主
中国总理强调，中日韩应秉持战略自主精神，维护双边关系，推动世界多极化，反对搞集团或阵营政治。 李克强在会上呼吁反对把经贸问题变成政治博弈或安全问题，反对保护主义和脱钩或切断供应链。 专家表示，美国对日本和韩国有很强的影响力，这使得这两个东亚经济体很难推动与中国的区域经济一体化，因为华盛顿希望东京和首尔服务于其遏制中国的霸权目的。但专家们也表示，日本和韩国领导人明白，集团对抗只会使该地区更加不稳定，这只会给该地区的每个人带来灾难。
辽宁省社会科学院朝鲜半岛问题专家吕超周一对《环球时报》表示，“美国无疑是中日韩合作的最大障碍。华盛顿将东京和首尔视为其追随者，当它的两个盟友与其最大竞争对手接触时，它肯定会感到不安。日美同盟和韩美同盟不是创建在平等关系的基础上的，这与它们与中国的关系不同。我们希望日本和韩国能够像独立国家一样行事，根据自己的国家利益和该地区的共同利益做出决定，“他指出。
