China calls on Japan to shun bloc confrontation, sensitive issues like Taiwan
- China and Japan should not provoke each other’s core interests, Chinese foreign minister tells event marking 50th year since ties were normalised
- Ties have been tested in recent years over Tokyo’s tilt to key ally the United States and a tendency to side with Taiwan on cross-strait issues
Addressing an event to mark half a century since the normalisation of ties, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said: “China and Japan should treat each other with sincerity and strive to live together peacefully”, rather than provoke each other’s core interests, including “heavily sensitive issues involving history and Taiwan”.
“The differences that exist between the two sides should be properly dealt with in accordance with the existing consensus, and more new consensus should be constantly sought,” Wang said in his virtual address to the event in Tokyo.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of a joint communique normalising diplomatic ties between the Asian neighbours, with the 45th year of the China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship coming up in 2023.
This is an opportunity “to push China-Japan relations forward in the right direction in a sustained and stable manner”, Wang said.
China-Japan relations have long been strained by their wartime history and territorial disputes in the East China Sea.
