On May 30, 2025, Assistant Foreign Minister Hong Lei met with a delegation led by Foreign Press Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan Kitamura Toshihiro, who came to China for the sixth China-Japan Foreign Ministry Spokespersons' Consultation. Hong Lei stated that both China and Japan should earnestly implement the important common understandings reached during the meeting between President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba last year, follow the principles and directions established by the four political documents between China and Japan, face up to history and look to the future, adhere to the notion that China and Japan are partners rather than rivals, and opportunities rather than risks, and comprehensively advance the strategic relationship of mutual benefit between China and Japan. The press departments of the foreign ministries of both countries should enhance communication and exchanges and make positive efforts to this end.