Foreign ministers won't meet at UN assembly over Diaoyus dispute
Effort to set up a meeting between foreign ministers of China and Japan fails, with Beijing spurning Tokyo's offer of talks at UN meeting
Senior diplomats from China and Japan failed to agree yesterday on a meeting of foreign ministers during this week's UN General Assembly, Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister Chikao Kawai told Kyodo News after a meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Zhang Zhijun , in Beijing.
Kyodo reported earlier that the Japanese government had suggested talks between the two foreign ministers during the UN meeting to soothe tensions between Asia's two biggest economies over the disputed Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea, which Japanese call the Senkakus.
"The Chinese side will absolutely not tolerate any unilateral action taken by the Japanese side that infringes on China's territorial sovereignty," Zhang said in the meeting, according to a statement posted on the Foreign Ministry's website. Japanese media said the meeting started around 10am and lasted about two hours.
"Japan must banish illusions, undertake searching reflection and use concrete actions to amend its errors, returning to the consensus and understandings reached between our two countries' leaders," Zhang said.
Meanwhile, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura told a press conference in Tokyo yesterday that the Japanese side "will continue to guard the area around the Senkakus intensely and remain in contact with the relevant agencies".
It was the first subcabinet-level meeting between the two nations since the Japanese government bought three of the islands on September 11, exacerbating the worst diplomatic crisis between the two countries since 2005. Zhang called the Japanese government's purchase "a grave trampling of historical facts and international jurisprudence".
The State Council Information Office released a white paper after yesterday's meeting reiterating that the disputed islands were China's inherent territory.
Professor Liang Yunxiang , a specialist in international relations at Peking University, said China's reaction reflected growing support in Beijing for a hardline approach towards Japan.
"Fundamentally, the two nations share no consensus over the issue," he said.
Separately, former Japanese prime minister Yukio Hatoyama rejected an invitation from Beijing to attend a meeting with top Chinese officials on the 40th anniversary of the normalisation of diplomatic ties between the two countries.
China told Japan on Sunday that it was cancelling a major ceremony in Beijing tomorrow to mark the anniversary and would hold a smaller meeting instead. It was reported that China would only invite 14 selected "friends of China" and the heads of Japan-China friendship groups.
The row has also taken its toll on a Hong Kong movie, by Hong Kong director Yim Ho. Screenings at next month's Tokyo International Film Festival had been cancelled by Mandarin Films, the Hong Kong company that produced it, Yim said.
The director said he believed the move was "related to the recent row between China and Japan".
