Relations between the Japanese Communist Party and the Chinese Communist Party have moved between contrasting periods of cooperation, conflict, and reconciliation throughout the history of the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Cooperation between the two Communist parties was initially driven by mutual opposition to Japanese imperialism before and during the Second World War, but relations became strained after the war over ideological disagreements and disputes over the influence of China and the Soviet Union. The JCP initially aligned with China during the Sino-Soviet split, but relations broke down and ceased in 1966 amid disagreements over the Vietnam War and Soviet policies. The JCP then adopted a policy of political independence from both Moscow and Beijing as well as other foreign communist parties, becoming sharply critical of the CCP.
For several decades, relations between the two parties remained hostile despite the normalisation of diplomatic relations between China and Japan in 1972. Relations began to improve in the late 1990s, with an agreement to restore party-to-party relations in 1998, although the JCP continued to criticise China's economic and political policies and their handling of human rights matters, territorial disputes, and international affairs. After 2016, the relationship deteriorated again when the JCP accused China of increasingly hegemonic and authoritarian conduct and removed its earlier characterisation of China as pursuing a "new pursuit of socialism", in 2020. From 2023, however, the JCP again sought dialogue with the CCP, emphasising cooperation on China–Japan relations (which the JCP were concerned were deteriorating at the time) and regional stability while maintaining their political and ideological differences.
History
During the Second World War
Collaboration between the JCP and CCP can be traced back to the Second Sino-Japanese War. In 1931, following the Mukden Incident, the CCP and the JCP jointly issued “The Declaration by the CCP and the JCP on the Japanese Occupation of the Northeast of China”. In this declaration, they emphasized that Japanese imperialism is the common enemy of the Chinese and Japanese working masses. The leadership of the CCP emphasized that a worldwide antifascist front and national anti-Japanese front in China must be supplemented by an anti-war front among the Japanese people. With Mao Zedong being quoted as saying that "The Japanese Revolution will occur after the first severe defeats suffered by the Japanese Army."
That same year, Nosaka Sanzo, founder of the JCP, would make contacts with CCP members Ren Bishi and Kang Sheng. Communications with both parties would mostly be conducted through the Comintern.
The relations with the JCP and the CCP would deepen with the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, and the arrival of Sanzo Nosaka in Yan'an in 1940. The then capital of Red China. In 1944, with both the support of the JCP and the CCP, the Japanese People's Emancipation League was founded. A Chinese-aligned Japanese resistance organization made up of defectors from the Japanese Army. The organization would engage in propaganda work. Targeting the Japanese occupation.Roth, Andrew (1945). Dilemma in Japan. Little, Brown. pp. 162-188
After the Second World War Following Japan's defeat in World War II, several leading Communists, including Tokuda Kyuichi and Miyamoto Kenji, were released, and the party resumed its activities at its 4th Congress in December 1945. In January 1946, Nosaka Sanzo returned to Japan from Yan'an and, at the 5th Congress in February, formulated the "Theory of Peaceful Revolution", which stated that "the immediate fundamental objective of the JCP is to complete the bourgeois-democratic revolution underway in our country peacefully and democratically." This new reformist line brought them some success, notably in the 24th general election for the House of Representatives in January 1949, in which 35 Communist candidates were elected.
However, on January 6, 1950, the Cominform criticized Nosaka's theory of peaceful revolution in an article at For a Lasting Peace, for a People's Democracy!, stating that it "glorifies American imperialism and has no connection whatsoever with Marxism-Leninism." The Cominform's criticisms caused unrest in the JCP, and on January 12, Tokuda published a firm response titled "Political Impressions", stating that "criticizing the words and actions of a comrade (Nosaka) without knowing the true situation in Japan will cause grave harm to the people and our Party" and "at first glance, the policy may appear pro-American, but in fact it is not, and there is no mistake in the Party's policy." On the other hand, the non-mainstream faction, represented by Miyamoto Kenji, opposed this view and held that the Cominform's criticisms should be accepted (for this reason, Miyamoto and the non-mainstream faction became known as the "international faction" or "Kokusai").
In China, the Communist Party, which had won the Civil War and proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China in October 1949 with Mao as Chairman of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic, also supported the Soviet Union against Nosaka, and on November 17, 1950, in its official newspaper, the People's Daily, declared that "Nosaka's theory that the bourgeoisie can be used to obtain state power by peaceful means is incorrect, and the content of Tokuda's impressions is pitiful," and called on Nosaka to engage in self-criticism. In response to this, on January 18, 1951, Nosaka criticized his own theory of peaceful revolution and declared that he fully accepted the Cominform's criticisms. Internally, this resulted in a victory for Miyamoto's faction, but the main faction that agreed with Tokuda's impressions (hereafter referred to as the "Sokan faction") could not bear this humiliation and demoted Miyamoto and the other members of the "international faction". Furthermore, when the Red Purge was ordered to remove JCP officials from public office, they went underground. Tokuda and Nosaka defected to Beijing in September 1950 and founded the Beijing Agency (Pekin kikan). Meanwhile, Miyamoto and other internationalists who remained on the ground formed the "National Unified Conference of the Japanese Communist Party" in December 1950 to counter the Sokan faction. However, at the 4th National Conference (4th Zenkyo) in February 1951, the Sokan faction recognized it as a splinter group and issued a "Resolution on Interfactional Struggle". Tokuda met with Mao in Beijing and then flew to Moscow to meet with Stalin, seeking backing within the Chinese and Soviet Communist Parties. As a result of this pressure, the leaders of the international faction were asked to submit a letter of self-criticism; Miyamoto was also forced to do so, and the Unification Conference was dissolved. The international faction was not allowed to return to the party immediately, and it was not until 1954 that Miyamoto was allowed to return to the leadership.
After forcing the International faction to surrender, the Sokan faction declared a policy of struggle in the "Basic Struggle Policy for the Immediate Future" of the 4th National Conference and in the "Immediate Demands of the Japanese Communist Party" (commonly known as the "51 Platform") at the 5th National Conference in October 1951, and issued instructions from the underground radio station Free Japan Broadcasting calling on the Central Self-Defense Forces and others to initiate armed struggle. The 51 Platform is said to have been a joint effort between Moscow and Beijing, and the CCP expressed its support for it. However, in April 1952, the US occupation was lifted with the entry into force of the San Francisco Peace Treaty, thereby ending the Red Purge, allowing the JCP to return to legal politics. Stalin died in March 1953, a ceasefire agreement was signed in the Korean War, which was at a stalemate in July, and Tokuda died in Beijing in October. Furthermore, as a result of the Red Purge, armed struggle, and confusion over its ideological stance, the JCP lost much of its popular support, and in the 25th general election for the House of Representatives in October 1952, all its members were defeated. It took a long time for the party to regain its strength thereafter, and arguments to justify an armed uprising virtually disappeared, thus losing the possibility of a successful revolution. In response to both internal and external changes, and at the recommendation of the USSR, which was moving towards peaceful coexistence, the Sokan and Kokusai factions began to grow closer around 1954. At the 6th National Conference, held in July 1955, the party was reunified and a resolution was passed to abandon all Chinese-style revolutionary armed struggle.
After the Sino-Soviet split
Following reunification, Miyamoto's leadership of the party was firmly established at the 7th Party Congress in 1958, but the party continued to be influenced by the CCP until 1966. Serious conflicts arose between the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China over their assessments of the course of Khrushchev's leadership of the CPSU, which began after Stalin's death in 1953. Notably, in 1961, the 22nd Congress of the CPSU criticized Albania for its pro-Chinese communist stance as "Stalinist", and Zhou Enlai responded by refuting this, leading to a sudden escalation of the Sino-Soviet conflict. The Chinese and Soviet Communist Parties pressured Communist parties around the world to clarify which side they would take. The JCP was troubled by the decision and remained silent for some time, but due to pressure from the Chinese faction within the Party, it decided to discuss the issue at the 5th Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee in 1963. Three different opinions were expressed: support the Soviet Union, support China, or non-intervention, but in the end, Miyamoto voted for "neutrality leaning toward China".
In August of that same year, the USSR, the United States, and the United Kingdom signed the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (PTBT), but the CCP strongly opposed it, considering it an attempt by the three countries to monopolize nuclear weapons and prevent China from developing nuclear weapons. A violent confrontation broke out at the conference, and Zhu Ziqi, the Chinese representative, threw a fan at Zhukov, the Soviet representative. While the Japanese Socialist Party supported the PTBT, the JCP opposed it, adopting a position closer to the CCP. From that moment on, Gensuikyō split into a Socialist Party faction and a Communist Party faction.