China’s Li Urges Japan PM to Keep Ties Steady Amid Tensions
(Bloomberg) -- Chinese Premier Li Qiang urged Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to keep bilateral relations “sound, steady” amid tensions, and for their countries to maintain the stability of global supply chains and free trade.
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Beijing and Tokyo’s relations are “at a critical stage of improvement and development,” the official Xinhua News Agency reported, citing Li as saying in his meeting with Japan’s new prime minister on Thursday on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Laos.
China is “willing to strengthen coordination and cooperation” with Japan to promote regional peace and prosperity, according to Xinhua, citing Li. Ishiba in turn said the two countries continue to share a broad direction of promoting a “mutually beneficial relationship” and building “constructive and stable” relations, according to a statement from Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Li’s meeting with Ishiba comes weeks after a Japanese schoolboy’s killing in southern China inflamed tensions that are already strained due to historical resentments, territorial dispute, and other issues including Beijing’s reaction to Japan releasing wastewater from a destroyed nuclear power plant.
Ishiba urged China to clarify the facts around the schoolboy’s murder and a separate attack on Japanese nationals in June, and to provide explanations as soon as possible, citing a sharp rise in anxiety among Japanese nationals residing in China. He asked for China to crack down on “malicious and anti-Japanese social media posts.”
He also called for the early restoration of imports of Japanese seafood, after the two sides agreed on a framework to monitor Japan’s discharge of treated wastewater from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean.
Japan and China have a close economic relationship but are increasingly at odds diplomatically.
Tokyo has repeatedly expressed concern about the increasingly active Chinese military and threats against Taiwan while Beijing worries about the growing closeness of Japan, South Korea and the US, which have been strengthening security ties.
During Thursday’s bilateral meeting, Ishiba raised concerns over the situation in the East China Sea, and the intrusion of a Chinese military aircraft into Japan’s territorial airspace in August. He also stated that Japan sees peace and stability in the Taiwan strait as “extremely important” for itself and the international community.
--With assistance from Josh Xiao and Li Liu.
(Updates with statement from Japan.)
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