China Reminds Japan of Zero-Sum Game Trap, What Does It Mean?

China and Japan must be on standby so as not to fall into the "trap of zero-sum play" and instead become cooperative partners, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Wednesday.

The recognition Wang Yi said amid growing economic and security turmoil between the United States and China.

A zero-sum game is a lose-win state, where the victory of one faction as a defeat for another faction.

In a video message to a community visited by some experts in several Asian countries, Wang appeared to be pressuring Japan not to help Washington's efforts to separate China from the global economy.

Japan, as a close ally of the United States, counts in terms of security.

He emphasized that China and Japan are the 2 countries that are "forever neighbors" until Beijing and Tokyo must be "wary of risky issues" on the "China-Japan economic and trade fabric".

"We must treat both with thought and sincerity. We should not take part in confrontations between teams, or get entangled in the trap of zero-sum games," Wang said in the nearly eight-minute video message.

On Wednesday, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi delivered a video message to the 2-day symposium event, held by Japan's nonprofit review agency Genron NPO and China International Communications Group.

For 2 years until 2021, the annual community, which began in 2005, ran online due to the COVID-19 outbreak that began in early 2020.