China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) issued a statement on April 5 (in Chinese) on the conversation Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had with his Japanese counterpart. Translating the statement, a Chinese journalist working for the state-run media expressed uncertainty whether Japan had received the message which, he said, indicated China's 'red lines'.  In his translation (below) he has indicated the important portions in bold. "Wang Yi said that in the face of the complex international situation, China and Japan, as long-time neighbours and the second and third largest economies in the world, should follow the trend of the times and the international trend, respect each other, trust each other, cooperate for mutual benefit and play a positive role in the cause of peace and development in the region and the world. Both sides should cherish and maintain the hard-won improvement and development of Sino-Japanese relations, firmly implement the important consensus reached by President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide during their call last year, abide by the principles and spirit of the four Sino-Japanese political documents, and ensure that relations between the two countries do not falter, stagnate or regress and do not get involved in the so-called great power confrontation. China hopes that Japan, as an independent country, will look at China's development objectively and rationally, rather than being "led by the rhythm"/carried away by some countries that are biased against China. Japan and the United States are an alliance, but China and Japan also have a Sino-Japanese Treaty of Peace and Friendship, and Japan also has the obligation to fulfil the treaty. China is willing to continue to promote the practical cooperation with the Japanese side; mutually support each other to host the Tokyo Olympic Games and the Beijing Winter Olympics slated to take place this year and next year (respectively); use the occasion "China-Japan Cultural and Sports Exchange Promotion Years” (2021 and 2022) and the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan (2022) as opportunities to improve the feelings of the two countries’ people; and bring stable and healthy Sino-Japanese relations into the next 50 years.

Wang Yi elaborated on China's principled position on issues such as the Diaoyu Islands and the South China Sea, opposes Japanese involvement in China's internal affairs in Xinjiang and Hong Kong, and asked Japan to abide by the basic norms of international relations and maintain a minimum of respect for China's internal affairs as a close neighbor, and not to extend its hand too far.

Wang Yi said that the will of a certain superpower does not represent the international community, and the few countries that follow this superpower have no power to monopolize multilateral rules. If under the guise of multilateralism, they are keen to engage in politics of a clique or big power confrontation or even arbitrarily impose unilateral and illegal sanctions on other countries based on misinformation, the world will regress to the law of the jungle where right and wrong are indistinguishable, which will be a disaster for the numerous small and medium-sized countries, and the majority of members of the international community will not agree."