BEIJING: China is signalling that it is keen to get on top of troubled ties with the United States, Japan and North Korea with the likely appointment of two officials with deep experience of these countries to its top diplomatic posts.
Current Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, ambassador to Washington from 2001-2005 and a polished English speaker, is tipped to be promoted to state councillor with responsibility for foreign policy, three independent sources said. China has only five such councillors and the post is senior to that of foreign minister.
Yang, 62, will likely be replaced as foreign minister by Wang Yi, China’s ambassador to Japan from 2004 to 2007 and a one-time pointman on North Korea. Both will be appointed during March’s annual full session of parliament, the sources said.
“Yang Jiechi will be in the driving seat, he knows a lot about Sino-US relations,” said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a China expert at Hong Kong Baptist University.
“China-Japan is high on the list (too) … With Shinzo Abe and the LDP back in the saddle in Tokyo, I’m sure they’re a bit concerned about the right wing twists of domestic politics and Japanese foreign policy as well.”
China has looked warily at the US strategic “pivot” to Asia, fearing it is part of efforts to contain China’s rising power, and both countries have fundamental disagreements about everything from human rights to trade.
China and Japan, the world’s second-and third-largest economies respectively, have always had problematic ties due to Japan’s occupation of parts of China until the end of World War Two.
But the relationship deteriorated dramatically last year as a spat flared over ownership of a group of uninhabited islets in the East China Sea.
Despite the rhetoric and fears of a military escalation, China and Japan have been trying to set ties back on track, in an acknowledgement of how crucial economic and investment links are. (PTI)
