Constructing a friendship bridge for China, Japan, and the ROK

China and the Republic of Korea are connected by the Yellow Sea, while Japan and the ROK by the Korea Strait, a waterway dotted with innumerable islets. The three countries are separated just by water.

Warm currents originating along the equator travels through the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea to reach the Liaodong Peninsula. These currents flow along the eastern coast of China, wrap around the ROK's Jeju Island, and continue moving northeastward toward the North Pacific past the western side of Japan's Kyushu Island.

If you set sail from the coastal city of Ningbo, Zhejiang province, and head northeast, you will reach Yeongam in Jeollanam-do in the ROK, and will arrive at Fukuoka in Kyushu if you continue further eastward.

Since ancient times, the sea has served as a conduit for transporting schools of fish, people, goods, and a channel for cultural, scientific and technological exchanges. The seas have indeed been a channel for exchanges between diverse civilizations.

China, Japan and the Korean Peninsula have influenced each other not only through land but also through the sea. China, Japan, and the Korean Peninsula are geographically inseparable. Therefore China, Japan and the ROK have maintained a close relationship. This is the reason why the country similarity index between China and the ROK, as well as between Japan and the ROK, is higher than that between most other countries.

Improving understanding an urgent task

The Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat, an intergovernmental organization based in Seoul, named "harmony" the word of the year for 2023, which symbolizes the China-Japan-ROK relationship, after people of the all the three countries voted for it in an online poll in January. This shows most of the people in the three countries want "harmony" among China, Japan and the ROK. It also shows they want the three countries to improve their mutual understanding which has rapidly declined since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Besides, according to the results of public opinion surveys conducted by the Center for International Security and Strategy of Tsinghua University, the Central European Institute of Asian Studies in Slovakia and the East Asia Institute in the ROK, in 2022 and 2023, improving mutual understanding among China, Japan and the ROK is a task that should not be delayed.

Since Japan and the ROK established diplomatic relations with China in the late 20th century, economic and trade, and cultural and people-to-people exchanges among the three countries have significantly increased, benefiting people on all sides. China has established itself as the "world's factory" and become the "world's second-largest market", while the ROK has become a developed country in a short span of time. And Japan has gained significant political and economic benefits through exchanges with China and the ROK.

However, the intensified strategic competition between China and the United States since the 2010s and the pandemic have weakened exchanges and cooperation among Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul, and increased their differences. The world is entering the era of "new normals" at a time when existing systems such as the World Trade Organization-led multilateral trade order, and the global value and supply chains are crumbling under the impacts of COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

The world, including China, Japan and the ROK, is placed in a precarious situation. It is like a small boat swaying on a stormy sea, not knowing how to find a harbor. Every country has to rely on its own compass to reach its own harbor.

A platform for discussions and helping solve problems

Established in September 2011, the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat is similar to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations headquartered in Jakarta, Indonesia. The TCS consists of three consultative board members, four directors and about 30 staff members, all of them from China, Japan and the ROK. The term of the secretary-general (and two deputy secretaries-general) is for two years, and he or she is appointed by rotation by the governments of the three countries. The TCS functions as a small-scale "trilateral community" where the people of China, Japan and the ROK come together to discuss issues and help resolve them.

Many TCS staff members can speak not only English, which serves as the working language, but also other languages including Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

As for the trilateral meetings, they have been regularly held since 1999. The catalyst for these meetings was a breakfast meeting between former Chinese premier Zhu Rongji, former Japanese prime minister Keizo Obuchi and former ROK president Kim Dae-jung on the sidelines of the ASEAN+3 (China, Japan and the ROK) meeting in Manila in November 1999. This was possible because unlike the current intensification of global confrontations such as the US-China strategic competition and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, in the 1990s and 2000s, regional integration and globalization were the prevailing trends.

This breakfast meeting developed into the annual China-Japan-ROK Trilateral Summit from 2008, which are hosted by the three countries in rotation. And it was former ROK president Lee Myung-bak who proposed the idea of establishing the TCS, with former Chinese premier Wen Jiabao and former Japanese prime minister Yukio Hatoyama endorsing the idea.

Both Beijing and Tokyo hoped to play host to the TCS headquarters, but Seoul, located in the middle between Beijing and Tokyo, became the host city. The TCS has three goals: to maintain lasting peace, common prosperity, and shared culture among the three countries. The TCS also support the Trilateral Summit and ministerial meetings in various fields, apart from carrying out various projects in the political, economic and socio-cultural fields to improve trilateral relations.

Although the TCS is an influential intergovernmental organization, it has the potential to evolve into a true multilateral cooperative network with further institutionalization. In fact, the TCS has been making efforts, with special focus on the future generations, to improve mutual understanding among the three countries. To achieve these goals, the TCS is implementing 120 cooperation programs in the three countries.

TCS organizes International Forum for Trilateral Cooperation

To this end, it will also hold the International Forum for Trilateral Cooperation in Qingdao. With "Revitalizing Trilateral Cooperation in the Post-Covid Era: Communication, Connectivity and Community" as its mainstream, it is co-organized by the China Public Diplomacy Association and the Qingdao local government.

Keeping in mind that the crucial issue for the trilateral cooperation is mutual perception among the countries, the TCS has made "Public Diplomacy and Mass Communication: Mutual Perception among China, Japan, and Korea" the theme of the first (political) session, discussing this issue from the public diplomacy's perspective, and "Mutual Perception Improvement: From the Lens of Local Community Exchanges" the theme for the third (socio-cultural) session.

The TCS has also made "From Exclusion to Inclusion: Connecting the Digitalized World" the second (economic) session, boosting trilateral cooperation, and finding ways to address the problems faced by the three countries, in particular the aging population. People aged 65 or above accounted for 30 percent of Japan's total population in 2022, are projected to comprise 20 percent of the ROK's total population by 2024, and accounted for 14.2 percent of China's total population in 2021.

Some prominent figures, including senior politicians from China, Japan and the ROK, as well as those from the fields of diplomacy, economics, media, and academics are expected to take part in the IFTC and propose solutions to the problems facing the three countries.

Necessity for holding the Trilateral Summit

As neighbors which cannot be changed, the three countries should overcome the common challenges together by improving mutual understanding, maintaining peace and pursuing common development, and banishing the ghost of "exclusive nationalism".

The three sides should draw inspiration from the story of crested ibises. There was a time when crested ibises were on the brink of extinction in Japan and the ROK. So China, which had a healthy number ibises in Hanzhong, Shaanxi province, shared with the two countries some of the wild birds and helped them bring the ibis back from the brink of extinction. The ibises are now thriving in all the three countries through trilateral cooperation.

It is essential for the three countries to strengthen their cooperation to find a path to meet the challenges of the era of "new normals" amid global uncertainties especially by holding the Trilateral Summit. For the future generations of China, Japan, and the ROK, it is important that they broaden their understanding and learn to accept the differences and expand commonalities with an open mind.

The author is deputy secretary-general of the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat.

The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

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