Embassy of China, Tokyo

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.

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. Soon after, the two respective embassies opened. 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.

List of Ambassadors

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." In less than 24 hours after posting however, the tweet was deleted.

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.

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.