Diplomatic 'Rashomon': Japan claims meeting with China's Wang Yi, Beijing denies

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi announced on March 23 that he had a brief conversation with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi the previous day in Manila. This encounter was significant as the first face-to-face meeting between the top diplomats of Japan and China since relations deteriorated following a controversial remark by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida about Taiwan in November.

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Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi stated he had a brief conversation with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on March 22, marking their first face-to-face contact since relations soured late last year.

However, the situation quickly became a diplomatic "Rashomon" when Chinese state media, including CCTV, strongly denied that Wang Yi had met or spoken with any Japanese officials. This stark contradiction has led to speculation about who is being untruthful and highlights the extremely abnormal state of current Japan-China relations.

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Wang Yi not only did not meet with the Japanese side, but did not even talk to them.

Veteran journalist Yoichi Shimada analyzed the situation, suggesting that Hayashi, as the one who initiated the public announcement, would have little incentive to fabricate such an event, as it could easily be disproven by China, leading to a major diplomatic scandal for Japan. Conversely, Shimada noted that if a brief meeting did occur, Beijing might have found it politically inconvenient to acknowledge publicly, especially after adopting a hardline stance demanding Japan retract Kishida's statement. This could have prompted China to deny the interaction to avoid domestic criticism.

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Japanese say 'we spoke', China says 'we didn't speak at all'. The two versions cannot both be true, so who is more likely to be lying?

Shimada pointed out that if China indeed denied an event that took place, it could create caution for future diplomatic engagements with Beijing, potentially requiring third-party witnesses to confirm meetings. While definitive proof of who is lying remains elusive, Shimada concluded that this "he said, she said" diplomatic blunder itself underscores the deeply abnormal state of Japan-China relations, leaving observers to question which version of events is more credible.

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Could it be that there was a brief contact, but Beijing found that it was politically difficult to explain after the news spread, so they quickly announced 'no', 'didn't speak'?