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.
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