China rules out meeting with Japan at summit
Print Edition
China yesterday ruled out a meeting between the Chinese and Japanese leaders at next week’s Group of 20 summit in Russia, citing a festering territorial dispute and provocations by Tokyo.
Japan’s failure to “broaden its mindset, face historical facts and take concrete actions to remove obstacles” make a meeting between President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe impossible, Vice Foreign Minister Li Baodong told reporters in Beijing.
“A meeting between leaders is not simply for the sake of shaking hands and taking pictures, but to resolve problems,” Li said. “If Japan wants to arrange a meeting to resolve problems, they should stop with the empty talk and doing stuff for show.”
The dispute over the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea escalated last September after Japan’s government “bought” them from so-called private Japanese owners.
Aircraft and ships from both countries have played cat-and-mouse near the islands for months. Three Chinese coast guard vessels briefly entered waters near the islands in a routine patrol yesterday.
The legacy of Japanese militarism in the 1930s and 1940s also haunts Sino-Japanese ties.
China reacted angrily this month when Abe sent an offering to a shrine for war dead, which also honors top war criminals, while cabinet members visited it in person.
Li said denials by some Japanese politicians of the country’s wartime past did not help. “Under these conditions, how can we organize the kind of leaders’ summit that Japan wants?” Li said.
“What Japan has to do now is show vision and courage, properly face up to history and take a proper attitude and real actions to get rid of the obstacles which exist for the healthy development of bilateral ties,” Li said.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has also called on Japan to face up to the past and improve ties with China and South Korea.
Speaking in Seoul on Monday, Ban called for “very deep introspection” by Japanese leaders, especially with regard to moves in Japan to revise its pacifist constitution.
“I find it very regrettable that the tension continues on due to issues of history and other political reasons,” Ban told reporters. “We need determination by political leaders. Correct awareness about history is needed.”
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