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Why did an Okinawan delegation visit a Beijing cemetery amid China-Japan tensions?
The trip highlights historical ties between China and the Ryukyu Islands that Beijing is leveraging as a counterweight in its row with Tokyo
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Fan ChenPublished: 11:00am, 30 Jul 2026Members of a delegation from the Japanese prefecture of Okinawa paid tribute to their ancestors at the historic Ryukyu Kingdom cemetery in Beijing, highlighting a legacy of ties that China is increasingly leveraging as a counterweight in its frictions with Tokyo.
During the visit in June – first made public by the Global Times on Sunday – about a dozen delegates travelled to the site southeast of Beijing, which honours six centuries of ties between China and the former island nation later annexed by Japan.
Located between the islands of Kyushu and Taiwan, the Ryukyu archipelago includes Okinawa – home to tens of thousands of American troops.
During the memorial ceremony, the delegation members paid tribute with traditional rituals, incense and liquor. Some members also wore traditional attire, according to the Global Times.
Among the visitors was Tetsumi Takara, a former Japanese lawmaker who told the newspaper that historical ties between China and Ryukyu “should not be forgotten, distorted, or hijacked by politics”.
The Beijing site holds the graves of more than 10 Ryukyu Kingdom officials and envoys from the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), including an envoy who objected to Japan’s 1879 annexation of the kingdom, and a student who took his own life to protest against the islands’ loss of independence, according to state news agency Xinhua.
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