Chinese Pres. Xi’s Visit to Japan Delayed due to Coronavirus

March 5, 2020

Tokyo--The Japanese government said Thursday that a planned state visit to Japan by Chinese President Xi Jinping has been postponed amid the ongoing global spread of the new coronavirus.

The government had been moving forward with arrangements for a Japan visit by Xi for early April, but it judged that both Japan and China need to focus their efforts on preventing the spread of the virus.

New schedules will be arranged, possibly for this autumn or later, government officials said.

"The biggest challenge for the two countries at the moment is to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, and we need to put top priority on this," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press conference.

"A visit by Xi will take place at an appropriate time for both sides. We'll arrange schedules again through diplomatic channels," Suga said.

Speaking at a press conference in Beijing, Lijian Zhao, deputy director-general of the Chinese Foreign Ministry's information department, said China and Japan share the view that Xi's Japan visit should take place at the most suitable time and in the most appropriate atmosphere.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe officially invited Xi to visit Japan as a state guest during the president's stay in Japan for the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, western Japan, in June last year.

Japan and China have been discussing how to produce results from the planned visit, including preparing a "fifth political document" that would follow the Japan-China joint declaration and others.

But the new coronavirus is spreading across China after its outbreak in Wuhan, Hubei Province, leading to the rare postponement of the National People's Congress meeting and deferments of preparatory meetings of the Japanese and Chinese governments ahead of Xi's trip to Japan.

The deadly virus is also spreading in Japan. Abe has called for the closure of schools across the nation to prevent a further spread.

"Japan and China will continue to communicate closely in view of the need to produce adequate results" from a visit by Xi, Abe told a press conference on Saturday, after meeting with China's foreign policy chief, Yang Jiechi, the previous day.

Xi was to be the first Chinese president to visit Japan as a state guest since his immediate predecessor, Hu Jintao, in May 2008. Jiji Press