In April 1964, Zhu De (first from left) and visiting Japanese politician Kenzo Matsumura (second from right) watched orchids.
"Can be white and yellow, no one is also self-fragrant. "The heart is not big enough, but it can hold a lot of incense." Zhang Yu’s five-character quatrain "Ode to Orchids" really captures the characteristics of orchids: the flowers are not big, and whether anyone appreciates them or not, but they silently exude a delicate fragrance. It is precisely because of this characteristic that orchids have always been loved by literati in China and Japan. In the 1960s, the small orchid became a bridge between China and Japan, and an ingenious "orchid diplomacy" was achieved.
It has successfully promoted the important trade between the two countries and made an indelible contribution to the normalization of bilateral relations in the future.
Sino-Japanese trade encountered difficulties, and the Orchid Delegation visited Japan with important tasks.
Late one night in April, 1963, the telephone of Liao Chengzhi, the head of China’s work in Japan, suddenly rang. When he picked up the phone, a familiar voice came from the microphone. It was Kenzo Matsumura, an alumnus of Liao Chengzhi and a famous Japanese politician. Matsumura exchanged pleasantries on the phone, and suddenly proposed that he would invite China to send an orchid delegation to visit Japan as the president of the Ailan Society of Japan. This request immediately made Liao Chengzhi feel a little strange. You know, Matsumura is one of the leaders of the Miki-Matsumura faction in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, and he has considerable influence in politics. Why did he ask China to send an orchid delegation to visit Japan in such a hurry?
After putting the phone down, Liao Chengzhi immediately reported the situation to Premier Zhou Enlai. After analysis, the two men thought that Matsumura’s request had a lot to do with the difficulties faced by the trade between the two countries at that time. Matsumura is a politician in Japan who is responsible for the normalization of Sino-Japanese relations. This upright and frank old man has been immersed in Sinology since childhood, and he loves orchids best, and has special feelings for China. After the Japanese surrender, Matsumura took the lead in opposing the pro-American and anti-China policies of Kishi Nobusuke’s cabinet. In 1959 and 1962, despite the pressure from the Party and the threat from the United States, Matsumura led two delegations to visit China and reached a consensus with Premier Zhou Enlai to normalize relations between the two countries gradually. During their visit to China, the two countries signed the LT Trade Memorandum, agreed to set up permanent offices in Tokyo and Beijing, and exchanged journalists, thus creating the famous "Memorandum Trade".
However, in the process of implementing the memorandum trade, there have been various difficulties. First, the Japanese government refused to approve the export of vinylon complete sets of equipment to China, and then the establishment of representative offices between the two countries also met with resistance, and the pressure from the United States and Taiwan Province made the Ikeda Hayato cabinet at that time even more afraid of the memorandum trade. The change of the situation made Matsumura anxious, so he came up with a good idea and invited China to send an orchid delegation to visit Japan to negotiate with the Japanese government to break the current deadlock. This can be said to be a very ingenious method, because Kenzo Matsumura loves orchids, which is well known to all. During his visit to China, he discussed with Zhu De the experience of orchid cultivation, so inviting a Japanese delegation to visit China in the name of exchanging orchids can save a lot of unnecessary troubles. After learning the true meaning of Matsumura, Premier Zhou and Liao Chengzhi decided to send a delegation to Japan immediately to discuss the trade between the two countries and the establishment of a permanent institution, hoping to exchange journalists.
Old politicians entertain China guests out of their own pockets, and senior government officials risk their resignation to release export credit to China.
On April 29th, 1963, a Japanese orchid delegation headed by Zhang Zhaohan, an expert on orchids and head of the United Front Work Department of Fujian Provincial Committee, left for China. According to the instructions of Premier Zhou, Liao Chengzhi’s three right-hand men, Sun Pinghua, Wang Xiaoyun and Wang Xiaoxian, became members of the delegation. Although Sun Pinghua and other three people don’t know much about orchids, according to his own words, "I can’t even tell orchids from leeks", they are the most important people in the delegation. At Haneda Airport in Tokyo, the China delegation was warmly received by Shigeo Yamamoto, the secretary of Kenzo Matsumura. Yamamoto Shigeo first conveyed Matsumura’s apology, because Matsumura thought that he enjoyed the treatment of ambassador every time he visited China, and was greeted by the leaders of the Japanese government. However, in Japan, he could not repay in the same way, feeling very sorry for the guests from China, so he told Yamamoto Shigeo to receive the China delegation with the greatest enthusiasm. Matsumura, who is not rich, also intends to pay all the expenses of the Japanese delegation’s visit to China out of his own pocket.
During the Japanese Orchid Delegation’s visit to China, they exchanged views with Japanese Orchid lovers, but this was not the focus of the visit. Soon, the China Orchid Delegation returned home from their visit, while Sun Pinghua and others stayed in Japan, and they started the most important agenda of this visit.
Under the secret arrangement of Kazuhiro Kazuyoshi, the main person in charge of Japanese trade in the memorandum, Sun Pinghua and other three people met with Watanabe Yaeji, an official of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, to explore the attitude of the Japanese government on the issue of using Japanese export credit for Japan’s export of complete sets of equipment to China. Watanabe’s hesitation shows that this matter is very difficult, because at that time, the two countries had not established diplomatic relations, and it was impossible to adopt the method of export credit, and many Japanese politicians thought that it would not benefit the Japanese government. Nevertheless, he decided to support the memorandum trade because it is beneficial to the future of Sino-Japanese relations.
Later, in 2000, Watanabe revealed to China reporters the reason why he was determined to help China at that time: "In 1963, I was 45 years old, and I was the Chief Cabinet Secretary of the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry. That was the first time I met Sun Pinghua. I intuitively think that he is a good man and a friend who can communicate with him for life. At that time, all I could do was to use my power behind the Minister of International Trade and Industry to approve the export of this equipment, because the Minister of International Trade and Industry would ban it when he knew about it. I made up my mind at that time. If I was found out, I would quit my job and become a citizen! " Three weeks after Watanabe signed the document, Japan’s Minister of International Trade and Industry finally found out about it. According to Watanabe’s memory, "He was as anxious as seeing a fire at home, but according to international practice, this document has come into effect, but the Minister of International Trade and Industry did not ask me to hand in my resignation. He understood my good intentions."
China’s emissary met with Japanese political powerhouses, and "Orchid Diplomacy" opened a communication channel between China and Japan.
After the success of the first battle, with the help of Japanese friends, Sun Pinghua and others met with some heavyweights in Japanese politics one after another and launched a new round of secret diplomacy, which received unexpected results. Utsunomiya Tokuma, a Japanese politician, specially held a grand reception for Japanese guests on the lawn of his home, specially invited Gu Fukuan, director of the trade department in charge of examination and approval of complete sets of equipment in the Ministry of International Trade and Industry of Japan, to attend, and he also carefully arranged Sun Pinghua to consult with Gu Fukuan on Sino-Japanese trade issues in a small room upstairs during the reception.
Then, Naokita, who later became Japan’s foreign minister, arranged for Sun Pinghua to meet Ichiro Kono, a powerful figure in Ikeda’s cabinet who supported the improvement of Sino-Japanese relations, in a Japanese restaurant. At that time, Ichiro Kono was one of the leaders of the Liberal Democratic Party. After a detailed talk with Sun Pinghua, he said: "Prime Minister Ikeda understands China’s position and is determined to develop trade with China. He will not quit because of pressure from other countries (referring to the United States)."
Since then, Sun Pinghua and others have entrusted Tatsunosuke, a member of the Liberal Democratic Party, to communicate with Japanese Prime Minister Ikeda Hayato on Sino-Japanese trade issues. Tall? After secretly meeting with Prime Minister Ikeda, please ask Sun Pinghua to tell China that Prime Minister Ikeda will keep his promise, and the Japanese government has basically made up its mind to approve the export of complete sets of vinylon equipment to China.
On June 29, 1963, China and Japan signed a contract in Beijing to import Japanese vinylon complete sets of equipment, with a total amount of 7.358 billion yen. The first complete set of equipment trade transaction greatly enhanced the confidence of Japanese manufacturers in developing Japan-China trade, and the "Orchid Diplomacy" between China and Japan was a great success. Although in the following days, the right wing of the United States, Japan and Taiwan Province kept coming out to make trouble, claiming that Japan exported complete sets of equipment and provided government loans as aid to the Chinese Communist Party, and some even said nonsense that putting the PLA in the Vinylon military uniform was to strengthen the Chinese Communist Party’s military strength in an attempt to obstruct the Japanese government from fulfilling the contract. However, after "Orchid Diplomacy", China established a good communication channel with the Japanese government, and the two sides jointly broke the obstruction of the right wing of the United States and Japan and Taiwan Province, so that the Vinylon factory was successfully settled in Beijing.
This orchid delegation’s visit to Japan, which was unexpected, is of great significance to the later development of Sino-Japanese relations. The successful introduction of vinylon complete sets of equipment played an important role in helping China solve the problem of people’s difficulty in dressing. The Japanese politicians contacted by the delegation later became heavyweights in Japanese politics, such as Naokita, who later served as Chief Cabinet Secretary and Foreign Minister. Ichiro Kono was the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and they played a vital role in urging the Japanese government to finally make a decision to normalize diplomatic relations between China and Japan.
The successful visit of the Orchid delegation also showed China that even in the difficult situation where the two countries have no diplomatic relations, there are still a large number of people of insight in Japan who are willing to sacrifice their personal interests for the development of bilateral relations, and the prospects for the development of Sino-Japanese friendly relations are broad. Regrettably, Mr. Kenzo Matsumura, who promoted "Orchid Diplomacy", did not see the normalization of Sino-Japanese relations. He died of illness in 1971 at the age of 88, but his contribution to Sino-Japanese friendly relations will be recorded in the history books of the two countries forever.
Editor: Li Xiuwei
关于作者