Huang Xingyuan, China's representative director of the Japan-China Friendship Center

Japan must correct its views on China, its relations with China and the world, Huang Xingyuan, China's representative director of the Japan-China Friendship Center, told the Global Times in an exclusive interview on Thursday, after Japan with other Group of Seven (G7) members and the high representative of the European Union (EU) issued a statement that unjustly accused China over the Taiwan question.

China has made a series of solemn statements on US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to the Taiwan island.

Huang pointed out that positioning China as a partner or an adversary leads to completely different policy directions and guidance on public opinion, saying Japan should look inside itself and rectify mindsets such as "Japan-US alliance is more important than Japan-China relations", "being close to China in economy  but relying on the US on security" and "beggar-thy-neighbor".

Maintaining or assisting hegemony goes against the trend of the times as peace and development remain the theme, said Huang, warning that the pursuit of absolute security for one side through the constant expansion of military blocs has only resulted in wars and disasters and the pursuit of unilateralism through sanctions and decoupling only undermines the industrial chain and hits the world's economic recovery.

Some people in Japan want to advocate military expansion and war preparations to change the course of post-war peace. Some are trying to replace the deeply integrated Asian economies with the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, and some support Taiwan secessionist forces with the dangerous perception that "a Taiwan emergency is an emergency for Japan."

Huang said Japan's "riding US' coattails for security" resulted from a complete misinterpretation of China and a misjudgment of the trend. "Japan's views on China, on China-Japan relations and on the world are wrong. This leads to Japan's strategic miscalculation which then affects public opinion, which will fall into a vicious circle," Huang explained.

Huang worked in Japan in the 1990s, 2000s and 2020s. China-Japan ties went from a honeymoon period in the 1990s, to the "hot economics and cold politics" since 2000, then to the current relations with declining political mutual trust, fragile public opinion base and media sparring with each other, Huang said. 

As the year 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan, Huang said the two countries are permanent neighbors, and peaceful coexistence and friendly cooperation are the only options. 

"As neighbors who can never move away from each other, there is no trial and error space for China and Japan for any attempt of war, proxy war and forced involvement in war," Huang noted.