Japan urged to work on relations

China hopes that Japan will take the action and create conditions necessary for the two countries to maintain high-level contacts, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said on Friday.

“The contacts themselves bear great significance for developing the China-Japan relationship,” he said at a regular news conference in Beijing.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has recently expressed his desire to have a meeting with President Xi Jinping during the upcoming G20 summit in Hangzhou next month.

It has been widely speculated that the goal of a recent visit to China by Shotaro Yachi, a key foreign policy adviser to Abe, was to pave the way for such a meeting.

Yachi attended the third China-Japan High-Level Political Dialogue in Beijing from Aug 24 to 26 and met with Premier Li Keqiang and State Councilor Yang Jiechi on Thursday.

Li said that both countries should properly handle disputes and safeguard the momentum of stabilizing and improving their bilateral relationship.

Lu did not confirm that Abe and Xi would meet, but he said that many leaders who are coming to the summit have expressed their desire to meet with Xi.

Ties between Beijing and Tokyo have been strained by disputes over historical and territorial issues.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi wrapped up a trip to Tokyo on Wednesday, where he attended a trilateral foreign ministers’ meeting with counterparts from Japan and the Republic of Korea.

When meeting his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida, Wang said the China-Japan relationship still faces difficulties and is at “a critical juncture”.

Lyu Yaodong, an expert on Japanese foreign policy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said a meeting between the leaders will help avoid further deterioration of China-Japan relationship.

But Japan could be using this meeting to create a good atmosphere for an annual trilateral leaders’ meeting of China, Japan and the ROK that it will host later this year, he said.

“However, Japan should show its sincerity with practical action in order to improve its relationship with China,” he added.