Senior Chinese leader calls for talks over Senkaku islands
Baku, January 25 (AZERTAC). The official Chinese Daily Newspaper reported Thursday that Jia Qinglin, a high-level Chinese official, has called Japan to engage in talks about the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands. Jia, who is retiring in March, is the head of China’s top political advisory board and is the highest ranking Chinese official to publicly take such a position.
Jia made the call in a meeting in Beijing on Wednesday with former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who is reported to have agreed with Jia on the need for negotiations. Hatoyama has been an advocate of developing closer ties with China but has recently fallen out of favor with current Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. When asked about the news, Japanese Chief Cabinet spokesperson Yoshihide Suga has expressed dismay that a former premier of the country would make such a remark, which doesn’t represent the position of the government. The stance of the current Japanese government is that Japan holds sovereignty over the islands and there is therefore nothing to talk about.
However, the tension has risen to such a degree that both countries have scrambled to deploy patrol ships and fighter planes to discourage unlawful excursions into what both claim to be their territory. Although no shots have been fired, the already fragile situation is open to accidents and miscalculations. Outspoken Chinese generals have already warned that any increased action from Japan, such as firing warning shots at Chinese aircraft, would be considered acts of war.
BY the way, New Komeito party leader Natsuo Yamaguchi held talks Thursday with senior Communist Party of China official Wang Jiarui in an attempt to improve Japan-China relations strained over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, administered for decades by Tokyo but claimed by Beijing.
Later Thursday, the Japanese ruling party leader held a separate meeting in Beijing with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
In meetings with Yang and Wang, head of the party's International Department, Yamaguchi was expected to call for increased dialogue between politicians of the two countries from a broader perspective on bilateral relations without focusing too much on the Senkaku issue.
Yamaguchi is carrying a letter from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of the Liberal Democratic Party, which forms the ruling coalition with New Komeito, and requesting a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party.
If Yamaguchi meets Xi, he is expected to tell the new Chinese leader that the two countries should hold a summit in the near future.
Xi is set to replace Hu Jintao as the country's president in March. He took over the top party post from Hu in November.
The New Komeito chief is the first senior lawmaker of the new Japanese government to visit China since its launch in late December.
He is on a four-day visit to China through Friday at the invitation of the China-Japan Friendship Association, Beijing's unofficial channel to promote ties with Tokyo.
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