Japan, China at loggerheads even before talks
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-02-09 14:56

Japan and China were already at an impasse on the eve of their first talks in four months, which are aimed at easing growing tensions between the East Asian powers.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso. Japan and China were already at an impasse on the eve of their first talks in four months, which are aimed at easing growing tensions between the East Asian powers. [AFP]

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo is due to hold talks from Friday in Tokyo in the first such meeting since Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi infuriated Beijing in October by visiting a war shrine.

But even as Dai was opening informal talks Thursday ahead of the dialogue, the two countries were at loggerheads on the reason for the strained ties.

Takeshi Noda, a Koizumi critic within his Liberal Democratic Party who was visiting Beijing, quoted Chinese State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan as telling him Wednesday that relations were unlikely to improve until Koizumi leaves office.

"It is inappropriate," Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, the spokesman for the Koizumi government, said of Tang's reported remarks.

"It appears inconsistent with the Chinese leadership's statements that it regards Japan-China relations as significant," Abe told a news conference.

"Our country's policy remains the same, that we are trying to develop future-oriented relations between Japan and China."

However, Noda, as quoted by China Central Television, said that the responsibility for the impasse was "mainly on the Japanese side".

Koizumi has infuriated China by paying an annual pilgrimage to Yasukuni shrine, which honors 2.5 million Japanese war dead including 14 top war criminals from World War II.

In turn, Japan was angered when China scuttled its cherished bid for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.

Koizumi in October appointed prominent hardliners including Foreign Minister Taro Aso, who was due to hold informal talks with Dai later Thursday.

Dai will meet Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Shotaro Yachi on Friday and Saturday for dialogue designed to allow a "candid exchange of views" over bilateral relations, the Japanese foreign ministry said earlier.

Japan and China, which are major energy importers, are also at odds over oil and gas in a disputed area of the East China Sea.