Yang Hongjie, Party chief and president of firm, said the reopening of the bookshop is aimed at marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of CPC. "We met with the bookstore's current runners in 2019 and they expressed the family's sincere willingness to reopen the bookshop in China."

Uchiyama Magaki and Uchiyama Shin, the third and fourth president of the Tokyo-based bookshop, sent congratulatory videos on the reopening of the bookshop in Tianjin in fluent Chinese. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, they were unable to come to the opening.

"The pandemic has never blocked Tianjin friends and publishers' sincere support to help our family to realize our dream – reopening the store in China," said Uchiyama Shin.

A number of descendants of renowned revolutionaries also congratulated the bookstore.

Zhou Lingfei, the grandson of Lu Xun said: "Uchiyama Kanzo was the best friend of my grandfather Lu Xun and during his stay in Shanghai, he had frequent visits and close friendship with the Uchiyama Kanzo's family and the bookstore… his last letter was to Uchiyama Kanzo and the last day's dairy in his life was a memory at the bookshop."