BEIJING/TOKYO (Reuters) – China claimed islands at the core of a row with Japan as its “sacred territory” in talks between the two countries’ foreign ministers, Xinhua news agency said today, as neither side showed any sign of backing down in a long-festering feud.
Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba urged China to exercise restraint at what he called a tense hour-long meeting over the dispute, which triggered violent anti-Japanese protests in China this month and is threatening ties between Asia’s two biggest economies, Japan’s Kyodo news agency said.
Xinhua said Yang reiterated China’s “solemn position on the issue of Diaoyu Islands, which have been China’s sacred territory since ancient times”.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura told a news conference in Tokyo the two sides had agreed to keep talking.
“There is no magic bullet in foreign diplomacy. We need to hold talks through various channels taking into account of broad perspective,” Fujimura told a news conference in Tokyo.
Sino-Japanese relations deteriorated sharply this month after Japan’s central government bought the isolated East China Sea islands, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, from their private owner, sparking the anti-Japan protests across China.
In a sign of the economic fallout, Japanese automakers Toyota Motor Corp, Nissan Motor Co Ltd and Suzuki are curtailing production in China in the wake of the protests that shuttered dealerships and darkened their sales prospects in the world’s top car market.
China’s meetings with Japanese diplomats – at the United Nations and a day earlier in Beijing – suggest Beijing does not want tensions over the island chain, believed to be in waters rich in natural gas deposits, to lead to a rupture in relations.
But the unyielding tone of China’s published remarks suggests that the row is far from over. Beijing has repeatedly called the islands its “sacred territory since ancient times”.
“The Japanese move is a gross violation of China’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, an outright denial of the outcomes of victory of the world anti-fascist war and a grave challenge to the post-war international order,” said Yang, according to the Xinhua summary of his comments.
Sino-Japanese ties have long been plagued by China’s bitter memories of Tokyo’s military aggression in the 1930s and 1940s as well as present rivalry over regional resources and clout.
The row coincides with a once-in-a-decade leadership change in China, while Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s ruling party faces a drubbing in an election expected in months, domestic dynamics that are make it hard for either side to retreat.
Noda is under fire from the main opposition party, which picks a new leader and possible next premier later today.
Japan, which says the islands’ purchase was meant to fend off a more provocative bid by the nationalist governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, to have his metropolitan government buy them, is trying to keep communications channels open.
China postponed a ceremony marking the 40th anniversary of the resumption of diplomatic ties with Japan, but an official at the Japan-China Economic Association said Toyota Motor Corp Chairman Fujio Cho and Hiromasa Yonekura, chairman of Japanese business lobby Keidanren, and other representatives of Japan-China friendship groups would attend an event tomorrow in Beijing.
Patrol vessels from the two countries have also been playing a tense game of cat-and-mouse in the waters near the disputed islands, raising concerns that an unintended collision or other incident could escalate into a broader clash.
