China, Japan officials meet to mend ties
(Kyodo)
Updated: 2006-02-10 10:44

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo met with Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso in Tokyo on Thursday in a bid to mend bilateral ties following Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to war-related Yasukuni Shrine.

China's Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo (R) meets with Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Aso at the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo February 9, 2006 ahead of Japan-China Comprehensive Policy Dialogue. The fourth dialogue, which aims at promoting communication between the two countries, will be held Friday and Saturday in Tokyo, the ministry said. [Reuters]

Dai, the first high-ranking Chinese official to visit Japan since ties became significantly strained after Koizumi's most recent visit to the shrine in October, paid a courtesy call on Aso at the ministry.

During their meeting, Aso is expected to allude to Koizumi's comments that he visits the shrine to pledge that Japan will never wage war again and to pay tribute to the war dead.

Dai is in Japan to attend the fourth round of China-Japan subcabinet-level talks mainly in Tokyo on Friday and Saturday to discuss various bilateral and regional issues to promote communication and ease strained ties.

Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Shotaro Yachi, the ministry's top bureaucrat, will lead the Japanese side in the talks. The previous talks were held last October in Beijing.

China and Japan have declined to specify their agenda but Japan is likely to sound out China on resuming talks between President Hu Jintao and Japanese PM Koizumi.

The top-level meeting between China and Japan will be the first since their ties were sourced further due to Koizumi's latest visit to the Shinto shrine in October.

China has been angered by Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni, which enshrines 14 Class-A war criminals during the World War II. Beijing says the visits show Japan has not truly repented of its wartime militarism.

The Dai-Yachi talks are also likely to touch on the bilateral dispute over China's natural gas project in the East China Sea and the suicide of a staff member of the Japan Consulate General in Shanghai in May 2004.