TOKYO: China claimed islands at the core of a row with Japan as its ‘sacred territory’ in talks between the two countries’ foreign ministers, Chinese state media said on Wednesday, as neither side showed any sign of backing down in a long-festering feud.
Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba urged China to exercise restraint over the dispute during what he called a tense hour-long meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported.
The spat has triggered violent anti-Japanese protests in China and hurt trade ties between Asia’s two biggest economies.
China’s Xinhua news agency said Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi reiterated Beijing’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 bought the isolated East China Sea islands, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, from their private owner, sparking 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 — both at the United Nations and a day earlier in Beijing — suggest Beijing does not want the row over the island chain, believed to be in waters rich in natural gas deposits, to lead to a rupture in relations.
This is, after all, the Year of Japan-China Friendship. But the unyielding tone of China’s published remarks suggests that the dispute 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.
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. (Reuters)