Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s bid for formal talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at a regional summit in Beijing next week is unlikely to succeed, a commentary by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency said.
The prospects for a first meeting between the two leaders during the APEC summit had risen after Abe met Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) in Milan, Italy, last month. With relations between the two countries strained by spats over territory and Japan’s World War II legacy, Abe may have to make do with a welcome rather than the initiation of dialogue, according to the Xinhua commentary published on Monday.
The article cited a string of what it called provocations by Tokyo last month, when three Japanese ministers and 110 lawmakers visited the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan’s war dead, among which are 30,304 Taiwanese soldiers, as well as war criminals.
Abe also sent a ceremonial offering to the shrine and Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga questioned some details of the nation’s forcible recruitment of thousands of sex slaves from other Asian countries during WWII, it said.
“It seems nothing more than a mere clumsy political stunt for the island country to advocate dialogue and fence-mending with neighbors on the one hand, while sticking to the bigoted course of fomenting strife and misgivings on the other,” said the article, which appeared under the byline: “Xinhua writer Zhu Dongyang.”
While Abe has visited about 50 countries since taking office in December 2012, he has failed to bring about a meeting with Xi amid Japan’s historical disputes with China.
Japan and China have been embroiled in a row over control of the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in the East China Sea, which are also claimed by Taiwan and known as the Senkakus in Japan.
Abe has mentioned his hopes for a bilateral meeting with Xi at the APEC event several times over the past few months, even as coastguard vessels and planes from both countries frequently tail one another around the disputed islands.
The two countries in September resumed talks on a communication mechanism aimed at avoiding unforeseen incidents.
Japanese officials had made a three-point proposal to China in an effort to secure an Abe-Xi summit, the Mainichi newspaper said last month, citing several government officials.
At any meeting, Abe would agree to say that although the Diaoyutais are Japanese territory, he was aware China had its own assertions and the two sides would hold talks to resolve the issue, it said.
Xi will “undoubtedly receive the Japanese leader with etiquette and hospitality, despite chronic territorial rows and historical feud with Tokyo,” the Xinhua piece said.
“However, that does not necessarily mean Abe’s long-sought formal talks with Xi during APEC would come true, which demands Abe extend good faith and take real action to create the proper atmosphere. Unfortunately, bilateral relations, constantly troubled by Japan’s attempts to wash off its wartime atrocities, have not seen such action from Japan even when the trans-Pacific meeting is soon to come,” it added.
Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a statement saying the nation had not made an agreement with China to stop senior ministers from visiting Yasukuni, the Kyodo News Agency reported. The statement was compiled in response to a written inquiry from an upper house lawmaker.
Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said nothing had been decided about bilateral meetings with China at APEC, either between ministers or leaders.
“We are continuing quiet efforts to improve the relationship between the two countries,” he told reporters yesterday, according to the ministry Web site. “Since this is a meeting in Beijing, we would very much like to bring this dialogue about.”
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