China’s Xi congratulates new Japan PM Ishiba
Chinese President Xi Jinping has congratulated new Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, state media reported Wednesday, the day after he took office in Tokyo.
Relations between the countries have worsened as China builds its military presence around disputed territories in the region, and as Japan boosts security ties with the United States and its allies.
Xinhua news agency said that Xi on Tuesday told Ishiba he hoped the “neighbours separated by a strip of water” could find common ground to “build a constructive and stable” relationship.
“It is in the fundamental interests of the two peoples to follow the path of peaceful coexistence, friendship for all generations, mutually beneficial cooperation and common development,” Xi told Ishiba, according to Xinhua.
Japan and China have had diplomatic relations for more than 50 years, but the key trading partners have seen relations sour significantly.
Beijing last week reacted angrily and lodged a complaint with Tokyo after a Japanese warship sailed through the Taiwan Strait for the first time.
The United States and its allies are increasingly crossing through the 180-kilometre (112-mile) Taiwan Strait to reinforce its status as an international waterway, vexing China.
The destroyer Sazanami made the unprecedented passage on Wednesday, several Japanese media outlets reported.
Beijing’s foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said China was “highly vigilant about the political intentions of Japan’s actions”.
The countries have also clashed recently following the stabbing of a Japanese schoolboy in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.
Beijing and Tokyo last year clashed after Japan began discharging treated water from the disabled Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean in an operation the UN atomic agency said was safe.
But the release generated a fierce backlash from China, which branded it “selfish” and banned all Japanese seafood imports.
However, China last month said it would “gradually resume” importing the seafood.
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