China's top diplomat stresses three 'musts' amid Japanese leader's open challenge to China's territorial sovereignty

Noting that this year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Tuesday when addressing a symposium on the international situation and China's foreign relations in 2025 in Beijing that Japan, the country that had started the war of aggression against China, again failed to express deep remorse for the crimes it had committed.

"We must stay highly vigilant to the resurgence of militarism in Japan, resolutely defend the victorious outcomes of World War II achieved with great sacrifice, and effectively safeguard the hard-earned peace and stability," Wang Yi, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said, adding that Japan's current leader publicly challenged China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, challenged the historical verdict of World War II and challenged the post-war international order.

Zhu Feng, dean of the School of International Studies at Nanjing University, who attended the symposium, told the Global Times that Japan's far-right parties and the current leader should retract and abandon its erroneous rhetoric and actions aimed at overturning the country's post-war pacifist Constitution, and work with China to jointly uphold the international legal principles that have safeguarded peace in Asia over the past 80 years, while advancing the building of an Asian community with a shared future.

In his address, Wang Yi highlighted the China-US relations as one of the world's most consequential bilateral relationships, emphasizing that the strategic choices of the two countries will shape the course of world history.

China and the US must seek solutions to their respective concerns based on equality, mutual respect and reciprocity, and find the right way for the two major countries to get along with each other, he said.

The minister noted that the course of this relationship over the past year demonstrates a fact: Mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation between China and the US is key to the stability and development of this relationship and the prosperity of the world. China and the US will gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation. Heavy-handed tactics do not work. Saying one thing and doing another is not acceptable.

In 2025, when faced with a tariff war initiated by the US, China responded resolutely through to the end, it firmly safeguarded national interests and demonstrated its confidence and resolve, Wu Xinbo, dean of the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University, told the Global Times at the symposium.

China consistently upheld the principles of equality, respect and reciprocity, firmly rejecting a condescending US posture and refusing to make unilateral concessions. Through such equal-footed negotiations, a win-win outcome was eventually achieved, Wu said.

China's relations with the rest of the world will enter a new stage where we can make greater contributions to the development and progress of humanity, Wang Yi said during the symposium.

Wang Yi stressed that in 2026, with the start of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30), our major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics should accomplish more.

Noting that the year 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War and the founding of the United Nations, Wang Yi said the world once again came to a crucial juncture and had to decide which way to go.

Reviewing China's diplomatic endeavors in 2025, Wang Yi summarized five major contributions: Facing a troubled world where peace is under threat, China acted as an anchor for stability; facing a new environment in its neighborhood, China acted as a pillar of the region; facing a changing international order, China acted as a defining force. At the same time, facing the global development predicament, China acted as a main engine, and facing critical challenges to international justice, China acted as a steadying force.

The minister's remarks accurately captured the role China has played and the impact it has had in international affairs, Wang Yiwei, a professor at the School of International Studies of Renmin University of China, told the Global Times at the symposium. He added that the sustained achievements of China's diplomacy lie in the strategic guidance of head-of-state diplomacy and the fact that China's diplomacy continues to occupy the moral high ground in the international arena.

Against a backdrop of heightened global turbulence, China's diplomacy not only delivered notable achievements but also demonstrated rare strategic composure in an exceptionally unstable year, Jiang Feng, a researcher at Shanghai International Studies University and president of the Shanghai Regional Studies Association, told the Global Times during the event.

Jiang further cited China's handling of trade frictions as an example, saying that China responded to the US' trade wars in a rational yet forceful manner. "By upholding justice and stabilizing the broader situation, China helped keep the overall international trade landscape relatively steady, which benefited not only China itself but also provided important support for the international community in safeguarding fairness, justice and progress," Jiang noted.

Looking ahead to 2026, the foreign minister laid out expectations for China's diplomacy. "First, we will provide stronger strategic support for our national development and rejuvenation. Second, we will blaze new trails in forging a new type of major-country relations. Third, we will work more actively to build a community with a shared future with neighboring countries," said the minister.

"Fourth, we will foster greater synergy for the Global South's joint march toward modernization. Fifth, we will inject stronger impetus into global openness and cooperation. Sixth, we will make greater contributions to reforming and improving global governance. Seventh, we will act with a stronger sense of mission and responsibility in safeguarding national interests," Wang Yi noted.