Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi (
Wu is due to meet with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi during the eight-day visit but began with the trip's stated aim: the World Exposition, a global showcase of technology near the central Japanese industrial city of Nagoya.
After arriving Tuesday evening she held a private dinner with the Expo's chief Shoichiro Toyoda, who is the honorary chairman of Japan's largest company Toyota Motor, a major investor in China.
She told Toyoda she hoped to take forward bilateral relations on the ideas set out by President Hu Jintao (
Hu made the demand as one of five proposals as a hastily arranged bilateral summit with Koizumi on the sidelines of an Asia-Africa meet in Jakarta last month.
"She told Mr Toyoda how she plans to meet Japanese officials to discuss details of the five principles stated at the China-Japan summit," said Huang Hing Yuan, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Tokyo.
Wu met yesterday with local business leaders in Nagoya and talked about the importance of urban renewal. She was due to head today for China's national day in the six-month Expo.
Beijing decided to send Wu, an veteran negotiator and Politburo member, instead of Prime Minister Wen Jiabao (
Analysts viewed the move as a sign that China wanted to send an official for serious talks with Japan but without the symbolism of such a high-ranking visit.
No top Chinese leader has been to Japan since prime minister Zhu Rongji (
Relations were badly strained by protests last month in Chinese cities, in which Japanese missions were damaged. The protests were sparked by Tokyo's approval of a nationalist history textbook that downplayed Japan's war crimes.
Beijing and other Asian countries have also been outraged by visits by Japanese leaders, including Koizumi, to the Yasukuni shrine which honors the country's 2.5 million war dead, including war criminals.
China angrily protested Tuesday after Koizumi suggested he might again visit the shrine, defending the pilgrimages by saying that Japan was staunchly pacifist 60 years after World War II.
Japanese Ambassador to China Koreshige Anami said yesterday that Beijing's real concern was to block Tokyo's cherished bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
VAGUE: The criteria of the amnesty remain unclear, but it would cover political violence from 1999 to today, and those convicted of murder or drug trafficking would not qualify Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodriguez on Friday announced an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of hundreds of prisoners, including opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists detained for political reasons. The measure had long been sought by the US-backed opposition. It is the latest concession Rodriguez has made since taking the reins of the country on Jan. 3 after the brazen seizure of then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. Rodriguez told a gathering of justices, magistrates, ministers, military brass and other government leaders that the ruling party-controlled Venezuelan National Assembly would take up the bill with urgency. Rodriguez also announced the shutdown
Civil society leaders and members of a left-wing coalition yesterday filed impeachment complaints against Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, restarting a process sidelined by the Supreme Court last year. Both cases accuse Duterte of misusing public funds during her term as education secretary, while one revives allegations that she threatened to assassinate former ally Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The filings come on the same day that a committee in the House of Representatives was to begin hearings into impeachment complaints against Marcos, accused of corruption tied to a spiraling scandal over bogus flood control projects. Under the constitution, an impeachment by the
Exiled Tibetans began a unique global election yesterday for a government representing a homeland many have never seen, as part of a democratic exercise voters say carries great weight. From red-robed Buddhist monks in the snowy Himalayas, to political exiles in megacities across South Asia, to refugees in Australia, Europe and North America, voting takes place in 27 countries — but not China. “Elections ... show that the struggle for Tibet’s freedom and independence continues from generation to generation,” said candidate Gyaltsen Chokye, 33, who is based in the Indian hill-town of Dharamsala, headquarters of the government-in-exile, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). It
China executed 11 people linked to Myanmar criminal gangs, including “key members” of telecom scam operations, state media reported yesterday, as Beijing toughens its response to the sprawling, transnational industry. Fraud compounds where scammers lure Internet users into fake romantic relationships and cryptocurrency investments have flourished across Southeast Asia, including in Myanmar. Initially largely targeting Chinese speakers, the criminal groups behind the compounds have expanded operations into multiple languages to steal from victims around the world. Those conducting the scams are sometimes willing con artists, and other times trafficked foreign nationals forced to work. In the past few years, Beijing has stepped up cooperation
RSS