SCMP


 

 

·Meeting on Asean summit sidelines marks first exchange with a senior Chinese leader since Prime Minister Kishida took office in October last year

·Chinese President Xi Jinping and Kishida will be at Bali G20 summit and Apec talks in Bangkok, but no meeting has been officially confirmed yet

China is committed to stronger ties with Japan, Premier Li Keqiang told Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida in Phnom Penh on Saturday, in the first meeting of a senior Chinese leader with the Japanese prime minister sworn in last year.

Both Beijing and Tokyo were committed to strengthening political, trade and economic ties, as well as people-to-people exchanges, Li said, as the two leaders met in the Cambodian capital on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit that is also hosting leaders from the US, China, South Korea and Japan.

Kishida, who was elected prime minister in October last year, said Japan and China should pursue “friendly coexistence”, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua.

The meeting had been long delayed over Covid-19 concerns that saw senior Chinese leaders suspend in-person diplomacy as well as deepening tensions in recent years as the US – a close Japanese ally – hardened its stance on China.

China-Japan relations have been fraught for decades, over rival sovereignty claims in the East China Sea and historical issues relating to World War II.

China is committed to stronger ties with Japan, Premier Li Keqiang told Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida in Phnom Penh on Saturday, in the first meeting of a senior Chinese leader with the Japanese prime minister sworn in last year.

Both Beijing and Tokyo were committed to strengthening political, trade and economic ties, as well as people-to-people exchanges, Li said, as the two leaders met in the Cambodian capital on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit that is also hosting leaders from the US, China, South Korea and Japan.

The meeting had been long delayed over Covid-19 concerns that saw senior Chinese leaders suspend in-person diplomacy as well as deepening tensions in recent years as the US – a close Japanese ally – hardened its stance on China.

China-Japan relations have been fraught for decades, over rival sovereignty claims in the East China Sea and historical issues relating to World War II.

Tokyo’s increasingly vocal support for Taiwan, especially after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited in August, has also caused great discomfort in Beijing, which regards the self-run island as breakaway territory.

Most countries, including the US, do not consider Taiwan to be an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any change of the status quo by force.

The 50th anniversary of the normalisation of China-Japan ties this year received little fanfare, with only a few ceremonial remarks from either side.

Japan’s involvement in a Nato cyber defence platform announced earlier this month has also become a new source of suspicion for China.

Both Chinese President Xi Jinping and Kishida will be travelling to the Indonesian island of Bali for the Group of 20 summit starting on Tuesday, and later to the Apec talks in Bangkok, Thailand.

But a meeting between the two has not been publicly confirmed.
Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported on Friday that Kishida was making final arrangements to hold talk with the Chinese president during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ meeting in Bangkok.

However, while Beijing announced last week that Xi would meet US President Joe Biden and French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in Bali, it made no mention of a meeting with Kishida.