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Sunday February 12, 6:17 AMJapan, China wrap up high-level talks on strained ties
China's vice foreign minister Dai Bingguo and his Japanese counterpart Shotaro Yachi concluded the 10-hour talks in a hot spring resort north of Tokyo, the Japanese foreign ministry said. The two sides were believed to have discussed ways to improve ties frayed by Koizumi's repeated visits to a Tokyo shrine which honours Japanese war dead, including World War II leaders condemned as war criminals. Japan and China reconfirmed that there is "no change in the basic position to promote their friendly and cooperative relations on a future-oriented basis," the ministry said in a terse press release without going into details. The two sides exchanged views on issues of mutual concern and agreed to hold similar meetings in the future "when necessary," the statement said. But a senior ministry official said that "China's attitude is tough," according to the Japanese news agency Jiji Press. It was the first bilateral meeting at the vice minister level in four months since the Japanese premier made his annual pilgrimage to Yasukuni Shrine in October, sparking off protests in China and South Korea. The Japanese side was reportedly seeking a resumption of contacts between Koizumi and Chinese President Hu Jintao, as well as their foreign ministers. But Beijing is strongly opposed to any top-level bilateral exchanges because Koizumi -- who has promised to step down in September after more than five years in office -- refuses to stop his shrine visits. Dai and Yachi were also believed to have discussed oil and gas in a disputed area of the East China Sea. Japan was also angered when China worked to scuttle its cherished bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council last year. In a meeting with a Japanese ruling coalition leader on Friday, Dai called Beijing's opposition to the shrine visits a "matter of political principle" and said the situation should change. "The efforts to mend soured Sino-Japan ties have begun with Prime Minister Koizumi on the sidelines amid renewed focus on the leadership election of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in September," the major Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun newspaper commented on Friday. Because the ruling coalition holds the majority in parliament, the new head of the LDP, of which Koizumi is the incumbent president, would become the next premier. In a sign the LDP hopes to bridge the gap with Beijing, its policy chief Hidenao Nakagawa plans to visit China from February 19 and former prime minister Ryutaro Hashimoto will go in late March, media reports said. Despite the bilateral friction, China is Japan's largest trading partner, leading much of the Japanese business community to push for an easing of tensions. |
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