Shenzhen APEC Focuses on Digital Green Energy and Supply Chain Resilience

The 2024 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit was held in Shenzhen, China, providing a significant platform for quantifying cooperation among East Asian economies. As a frontline city in China’s reform and opening-up process, Shenzhen’s hosting of the summit symbolizes China’s new role in global economic governance. In contrast to the previous year’s summit in Osaka, Japan, this meeting focused on issues such as the digital economy, green energy, and supply chain resilience, inviting leaders from major global economies to discuss regional economic recovery and coordinated development. While APEC’s core mission is to promote free trade and investment, and although it lacks mandatory enforcement mechanisms, it retains considerable influence in fostering multilateral dialogue and policy coordination.

High-level dialogue between Japan and China has long been a critical juncture in the political and economic relations of the Asia-Pacific region. The two nations face numerous divergences in history, territory, trade, and security, with the East China Sea territorial dispute and China’s military activities in the Taiwan Strait exerting sustained pressure on bilateral relations. Despite these tensions, the two sides have maintained a degree of interaction under various economic cooperation frameworks and have sought consensus in past APEC meetings and other multilateral gatherings. The talks between Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae and President Xi Jinping were viewed as a vital opportunity to restart dialogue on economic and diplomatic fronts, as well as a demonstration of Japan’s effort to seek balance amid the tug-of-war between the two major powers, the United States and China.

However, according to reports by the Central News Agency (CNA), formal talks were not achieved during the summit on November 18 and 19. The specific reasons have not been made public, but they are speculated to be related to the meeting schedule, security considerations, and the sensitivity of the topics for discussion. Prime Minister Takaichi had expressed hope before the summit to engage in in-depth exchanges with President Xi on trade, technological cooperation, and regional security. However, during the peak of the summit, the schedules of both sides were tightly packed by their respective diplomatic teams, making it difficult to allocate sufficient time. This situation also reflects that high-level dialogue between the two countries under multilateral frameworks is often constrained by time, political risks, and domestic political pressures.

The failure to hold formal talks has a non-negligible impact on APEC itself. APEC’s core value lies in promoting mutual understanding and cooperation among member states; if the two major economies of Japan and China cannot engage in direct dialogue during the summit, it may weaken the overall coordination effect of the event and make it difficult to reach consensus on key issues at the multilateral level. For Japan, the lack of high-level interaction with China may be perceived as a risk of marginalization in regional politics. Particularly as the United States strengthens security cooperation with Japan, an inability to balance economic relations with China could create uncertainty both domestically and internationally. For China, while it can maintain market openness to Japan at the economic level, the absence of high-level dialogue may also limit further cooperation between the two sides in sensitive areas such as technology and capital flows.

Looking ahead, both sides have various avenues to restart dialogue. Japan could work with China’s diplomatic departments to explore bilateral meeting windows outside of APEC, or seek cooperation opportunities in other multilateral conferences, such as ASEAN+3 or the G20. China, meanwhile, could reduce political pressure on Japan through diplomatic channels while maintaining economic complementarity, paving the way for future high-level interactions. If the two sides successfully hold talks at the next APEC or other international conferences, it will help alleviate regional tensions and inject more stability and predictability into the Asia-Pacific economic system.

In conclusion, although Prime Minister Takaichi and President Xi did not hold formal talks during the Shenzhen APEC summit, this incident highlights the complexity and challenges facing high-level dialogue between the two countries within global multilateral mechanisms. Restarting dialogue in a more flexible environment in the future would help maintain economic stability and political balance in the Asia-Pacific region. (Factual source: Central News Agency)