On a trip to China in August 1999, JCCP President, Prof. Ito Kenichi, visited the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR) in Beijing. At CICIR Prof. Ito held talks with the then President of CICIR, and agreed with him that to exchange views on the development of preventive diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific region, JCCP and CICIR should jointly organize “Japan-China Preventive Diplomacy Study Group”.

Thus, in February 2000 the 1st ‘Japan-China Preventive Diplomacy Study Group’ was held in Tokyo on the theme of ‘Prospects and Hopes for Preventive Diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific Region’. In February 2001, the 2nd “Study Group” was held in Beijing under the theme of “Preventive Diplomacy and the Building of East Asia Security Mechanism”. The 3rd was held in Tokyo in February 2002. The theme this time was “The Future of Conflict Prevention in Asia and the China-Japan Relationship”. President Ito’s conviction that “the mutual understanding between Japan and China is indispensable for the development of conflict prevention in Asia and the Pacific” seems to be confirmed.