On May 4, 2018, Minister Wang Zhigang of the Ministry of Science and Technology met with a delegation led by Yoshimasa Hayashi, President of the Japan-China Friendship Parliamentarians‘Union and Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan. The two sides exchanged views on China-Japan cooperation in science and technology.

Minister Wang Zhigang briefed the Japanese side on China’s science and technology plan for the next step which were made at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the “Two Sessions” this year. He said that innovation is the primary driving force for development and the strategic support for building a modern economic system and that China now puts science and innovation in a more important position. Science has neither boundaries nor borders. Japan also attaches great importance to science and innovation and has implemented the strategy of nation building through technology. There are broad prospects for China-Japan cooperation in science and innovation. He pointed out that since the signing of the intergovernmental agreement on science and technology cooperation between the two countries in 1980, the two sides have carried out in-depth people-to-people exchanges, research cooperation and platform building. Under new circumstances, the two sides should enable existing mechanisms to facilitate business-academia cooperation, making due contributions to boosting bilateral relations.

Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi expressed his appreciation of the remarks by Minister Wang Zhigang. He pointed out that this year marks the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between China and Japan and the bilateral relations are warming up, which provides new opportunities for cooperation in science and technology. He noted that Japan is willing to strengthen cooperation with China in the areas of common interest and hoped that the two sides can further expand their people-to-people exchanges and serve the progress of science and technology and the friendship of the two peoples. 

Present at the meeting were Director-General Ye Dongbai of the Department of International Cooperation, Director-General Qin Yong of the Department of High-tech Development and Industrialization and Director-General Wu Yuanbin of the Department of Science and Technology for Social Development of the Ministry of Science and Technology, as well as Director-General for International Affairs Kazuaki Kawabata of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan and Minister Hideo Ishizuki of the Japanese Embassy in China.