China and Japan alone should resolve their dispute over contested islands in the East China Sea, Beijing said yesterday, rejecting a US offer for three-way talks to address the simmering row.
The Asian neighbors have been locked in their worst diplomatic spat for years since Tokyo arrested a Chinese trawler captain involved in a collision with two Japanese coastguard vessels near the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) — known as Senkaku in Japan — in early September.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton stepped into the fray last week at a regional summit in Vietnam, telling both sides that Washington was willing to host a trilateral meeting to ease tensions, but Beijing balked at the notion.
“I want to emphasize that this is only a US idea,” Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs spokesman Ma Zhaoxu (馬朝旭) said in a statement.
“China always believes that we should make full use of the current various dialogue and cooperation mechanisms in the Asia-Pacific region,” Ma said. “The territorial dispute between China and Japan over the Diaoyu Islands is the business of the two nations only.”
Japan, China and Taiwan claim the potentially resource-rich islets, which are administered by Japan.
Clinton said in Hanoi that she had told China and Japan that the US was “more than willing to host a trilateral where we would bring Japan and China and their foreign ministers together to discuss a range of issues.”
She reiterated that invitation yesterday on a visit to Kuala Lumpur, saying it was not just about one issue.
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
‘BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS’: The US military’s aim is to continue to make any potential Chinese invasion more difficult than it already is, US General Ronald Clark said The likelihood of China invading Taiwan without contest is “very, very small” because the Taiwan Strait is under constant surveillance by multiple countries, a US general has said. General Ronald Clark, commanding officer of US Army Pacific (USARPAC), the US Army’s largest service component command, made the remarks during a dialogue hosted on Friday by Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Asked by the event host what the Chinese military has learned from its US counterpart over the years, Clark said that the first lesson is that the skill and will of US service members are “unmatched.” The second
STANDING TOGETHER: Amid China’s increasingly aggressive activities, nations must join forces in detecting and dealing with incursions, a Taiwanese official said Two senior Philippine officials and one former official yesterday attended the Taiwan International Ocean Forum in Taipei, the first high-level visit since the Philippines in April lifted a ban on such travel to Taiwan. The Ocean Affairs Council hosted the two-day event at the National Taiwan University Hospital International Convention Center. Philippine Navy spokesman Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, Coast Guard spokesman Grand Commodore Jay Tarriela and former Philippine Presidential Communications Office assistant secretary Michel del Rosario participated in the forum. More than 100 officials, experts and entrepreneurs from 15 nations participated in the forum, which included discussions on countering China’s hybrid warfare
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