This was followed by a meeting between Qin Zheng and Ito Hirobumi, mainly to discuss the determination of the future relationship between East China and Japan, mutual exchanges, economic and commercial affairs, and other matters. After three days of consultations, Qin Zheng and Ito Hirobumi jointly released the consensus reached by the two sides at a press conference.

East China and Japan have reached a peace treaty through an agreement of equality and freedom, established friendly cooperation, mutual trust and mutual benefit relations, and gradually enhanced mutual understanding and communication, strengthened mutual trust, deepened exchanges and cooperation between the two sides in political, military, cultural and other fields, and finally reached a consensus on a new type of state relations of peace, friendship, mutual trust, mutual benefit, interaction, cooperation and win-win;

First, East China will set up a consulate in Japan this year, stationing diplomatic personnel, and the two sides will formally establish reciprocal diplomatic relations to facilitate exchanges and communication at the level in the future;

Second, the two sides should immediately start economic and trade talks, reach an economic and trade agreement based on the principle of friendship and reciprocity, strengthen economic and trade exchanges between the two sides, and gradually establish close economic and trade cooperation.

Third, at the end of this year or the beginning of next year, East China will arrange for key officials to visit Japan to further deepen political communication and understanding between the two sides and strive to establish political mutual trust.

Fourth, we will strengthen military exchanges between the two sides, arrange for the two sides to send fleets to each other to visit each other, and promote joint military exercises between the two sides.

Fifth, strengthen cultural exchanges, arrange academic exchanges between scholars from the two countries, and set up academic topics such as common history and culture for cooperation, and actively promote mutual visits between the two universities, send foreign students to each other, and encourage private self-funded study abroad.

Announced at the press conference, only the framework part of the consensus, under each content, there are detailed explanations and plans, judging from the content of the statement alone, of course, there is no problem, on the contrary, this is simply a model of friendly relations between countries, but East China ** and Japan fought to the death 1 year ago, less than two months ago, it was still a sabre-rattling, almost rekindled the war, and now suddenly came a 180-degree turn, anyone who sees it will be puzzled.

However, Ito Hirofumi is very satisfied with the content of this consensus, after all, his visit to East China, in addition to restoring relations with East China, also has a very important purpose is to use this visit to put pressure on Britain to achieve the goal of recovering tariff rights, from the content of this consensus, the first and second articles have actually reached an agreement between the two sides a long time ago, but they have not been implemented for various reasons, and the content is also normal, it is completely a normal relationship between the two countries, but 3, 4, These political, economic, and cultural exchanges are the only ones that can be found in countries with good relations.

Of course, it can't be said that because there was a war between East China and Japan, friendly relations cannot be established, Britain and France have fought for hundreds of years, and now they are still reconciled, and even formed an alliance, so Japan and East China have reconciled, and even established friendly relations, it is not a big deal, and now the two sides have only reached a consensus, and even the agreement has not been signed, which will not be finally signed after the Senate of East China and the Japanese Diet approve. Of course, according to general international practice, such a consensus can usually be adopted in China, but this is still far from a truly friendly relationship.

But now Japan is still one of the members of the [Quad Alliance], and although the [Quad Alliance] does not explicitly state the target target, but everyone knows that this goal is East China**, so now Japan and East China ** have reached such a consensus that is obviously moving towards friendship rather than confrontation, of course, it is intriguing, everyone will have such a question, is Japan planning to withdraw from the [Quad Alliance]?

Ito Hirobumi also believes that after seeing this consensus, the British will definitely not be able to sit still, and will inevitably ask Japan to inquire, and may even ask Japan to refuse to sign this agreement, or revise the content of the agreement, and then Japan will have the initiative in negotiations.

First of all, it is inevitable for the two sides to establish diplomatic relations, although East China cannot be called a formal country, but this is the general trend, Japan cannot still deceive itself that East China is a rebellion of the Qing Dynasty, and is not qualified to represent China.

The second is to sign trade negotiations, which is also a major benefit to Japan, because Japan's territory is small, resources are scarce, and the population is insufficient, and it is extremely dependent on China economically, and it not only needs to import various mineral resources from China, but also needs China's huge market to ensure that Japan's industrial products are sold, and now Japan's imports and exports to China must not only pay the highest tariffs formulated by East China, but also be subject to various restrictions. Of course, East China's trade with Japan is the same, but East China's dependence on Japan is far lower than Japan's dependence on China, and after the two sides sign a trade agreement, even if it is the lowest level of trade preferences, Japan can get certain benefits from it.

As for other political, military, and cultural exchanges and cooperation, even if an agreement is signed, the specific implementation can be carried out according to the actual situation.

In this way, after the two sides reached a consensus, Ito Hirobumi also ended this visit to East China**, returned to China with a consensus, and the two sides also agreed that the time for the consensus to take effect is one month, that is, within a month, both sides will organize discussions on the content of the consensus in the country to confirm whether to recognize the consensus, if within a month, both sides have not officially notified each other, refusing to recognize the consensus, it can be regarded as a consensus in effect, East China ** will send a mission back to Japan, and complete the signing ceremony in Japan, and at the same time set up a consulate in Japan.

And after Ito Hirofumi left, East China ** immediately organized a discussion of the consensus, but first of all, it was discussed at the executive meeting, in fact, only from the content of the consensus, the members who participated in the executive meeting were basically satisfied, after all, the relationship with Japan is normal, and the establishment of a certain good relationship is also beneficial to East China**, but everyone is very suspicious of Japan's credibility, first, Japan's turn is really too big, the so-called abnormal things must have demons, not to mention that in the old time and space, Japan has always been known as " Cunning and changeable, capricious", "calling brothers and sisters to their faces, and pulling knives behind their backs" and so on are known for their bad deeds, so Japan's sudden turn to show goodwill to East China has to make people have ideas, and the Japanese are talking so well, is there any conspiracy behind their backs; second, Japan is still one of the members of the [Four-Power Alliance], which is a national alliance that is obviously aimed at East China, and as long as Japan is still in this alliance for a day, then it is impossible for East China to have real trust in Japan.

In addition, at this time, the news of the failure of the negotiations between Japan and Britain on tariff rights has been fed back, so it is not difficult to conclude that Japan's sudden turn and immediate overture to East China is likely to deliberately put pressure on Britain to take back the tariff rights.

However, at least on the surface, Japan's attitude is still quite good, at least in the main easing relations with East China, if East China refuses, it is undoubtedly morally passive, and although this possibility is not large, but Japan and East China are not completely without the possibility of improving relations, if Britain still strongly refuses to return Japan's tariff rights, in addition, Japan has obtained a lot of economic benefits after signing a trade agreement with East China, and economically with East China There is a deep bundle, which is likely to prompt Japan to truly improve relations with East China.

And East China can also deliberately strengthen the guidance of these aspects, such as deepening Japan's economic dependence on China through trade agreements, and taking advantage of cultural exchanges to support pro-China forces in Japan, etc., after all, Japan has not yet been completely militarized, and there are still some strategically sober politicians in charge of the overall situation, so East China is not completely without opportunities.

Of course, this does not mean that East China should cede too many interests to Japan in order to win over Japan, or it should listen to its words and watch its deeds. If Japan really does have the intention of relying on East China, then East China will naturally return the favor and respond positively, and when necessary, it can also provide Japan with certain help, and even give up some benefits to Japan without losing itself; but if Japan and East China are relieved, it is temporary, and it is only an expedient measure to win a respite for themselves, and even take advantage of the détente with East China to put pressure on Britain, and of course there is no need for East China to cooperate with Japan. In short, if Japan does not take the initiative to make some substantive changes, it is just lip service, and there is no need for East China to show excessive enthusiasm. In addition, we must also be prepared for Japan to turn its face at any time.

Therefore, in the end, the Executive Council reached a resolution, and the strategy for Japan is: take me as the mainstay, stick to the low line, wait and see what happens, and actively prepare to deal with sudden changes due to the guidance of forces.

The next day, the Senate discussed the consensus reached by the two sides and voted on it, and finally passed the vote on the consensus with 145 votes in favor, 12 abstentions, and 66 votes against.

Subsequently, Huadong ** notified the Japanese consulate in Qingdao of this result, and now it is waiting for the result on the Japanese side.