President Washio visited China to attend the unveiling ceremony for the "Monument to Japanese and Chinese Worker Friendship" at the Zhongguo Gongyun Xueyuan in Beijing. On his trip, President Washio met with Chinese President Jiang Zemin on February 16 at the Great Hall of the People and exchanged opinions on issues such as promoting mutual cooperation between the two countries.

At this meeting President Washio pointed out that "developing an economy in the current of globalization is a problem. No single market economy model could be applied to every situation in the world." He said that, "there should be various types of market economies because every nation's level of economic development is different and has historical and geographic characteristics."
President Jiang Zemin responded, "I agree with your opinion. The economy should be variegated with the local culture, locality, religion and so forth, not imposing one dominant pattern onto the whole. The world should be polarized."
Regarding China's joining the WTO President Washio stated that he "would like to welcome China as I anticipate sustained mutual cooperation between Japan and China and a prosperous standard of living." Further, he posited, "could it be possible to conclude a free trade agreement among Japan, China and Korea, with economic development as the foundation? It is necessary to have an Asian version of the IMF for the sake of economic development in the whole of Asia."
Also when meeting with the All China Trade Union Federation President Wei Jian-xing, President Washio asked for the China's participation in the labor union meeting to be held along with the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation in Shanghai.