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with China being part of that leading role. Japan had also become the larg-
est provider of development assistance in East Asia, and envisioned China
becoming a new partner with Japan. Japan’s development trajectory was then
still quite rapid, to the extent that many people thought of Japan as a rising
number one, whose economy would soon surpass that of even the United
States. Japan’s growth during the 1980s had slowed from the high rates of the
1960s and 1970s, but the stagnation of the 1990s had yet to set in. Thus, while
levying sanctions in the aftermath of 6-4, Japan’s leaders believed they should
play a leading role in bringing China back into the international community.
In line with these considerations, Japan played an important role in facilitat-
ing Beijing’s dissolution of post-6-4 Western sanctions.
Qian Qichen recognized Japan as “the weak link in the Western united
front of sanctioning China.”^16 Japan had joined in sanctioning China after 6-4
mainly in order to stay in step with other Western countries, Qian believed.
Chinese diplomacy thus encouraged Japan in its desire to play an active role
in restoring normal relations between China and other Western countries. In
January 1990, Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu became the first leader of a major
industrial democracy to receive a Chinese leader after the Beijing Massacre
when he received the head of China’s State Planning Commission, Zou
Jiahua. Tokyo was sensitive to US criticism, but Kaifu believed that the visit
by two US presidential envoys (Brent Scowcroft and Lawrence Eagleburger)
to Beijing the previous month would provide cover for an invitation to Zou.^17
In the lead up to Zou’s visit, Japanese leaders told Beijing that ending martial
law would help normalize the situation. Martial law was lifted in Beijing on
January 11, 1990, six days before Zou arrived in Tokyo. This allowed Tokyo
to take credit with its Western allies. Zou stayed in Japan for nine days to
explain China’s policies and call for expanded Sino-Japanese cooperation.
China’s government was willing to work with Japan for stable, long-term,
and deeply rooted friendship between the two nations, Zou told his Japanese
hosts. Japan’s foreign minister told Zou that Japan’s government had “without
thought” imposed its own values on China, even though China had a dif-
ferent sort of social system. He hoped for an early restoration of normal ties,
the he said.
State councilor Li Tieying went to Osaka for an ikebana (flower arrange-
ment) exhibition in June, carrying an “oral letter” for Prime Minister Kaifu.
China desired expanded cooperation with Japan; Sino-Japanese relations were
“special,” Li told Kaifu. “China’s government always views the promotion of
Sino-Japanese friendship as an important part of China’s foreign policy,” Li
explained. “No matter how the world might change, no matter how much the
internal conditions of the two countries might change, Sino-Japanese friend-
ship will continue from generation to generation,” Li Tieying said eloquently.^18
China’s friendship offensive toward Japan paid off in July 1990 during
the G-7 summit of industrialized democracies convened in Houston, Texas.