Still chance of talks between Xi and Abe, says diplomat

There was a significant opportunity for a first meeting between Chinese and Japanese leaders at a regional gathering near Beijing next month, but the ball was in Tokyo's court, China's envoy to Japan said yesterday.

Ambassador Cheng Yonghua said Japan had to make concessions if there were to be talks.

"Major obstacles to current China-Japan relations are the issues related to history and territory," he said in a speech to business leaders in Tokyo. "The Apec summit to be held in Beijing in November will be a significant opportunity, but it is also true that there are problems."

After almost two years of high tensions between the two countries, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has wasted no opportunity in recent weeks to talk up his chances of meeting President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

Observers say the strategy is intended to push Xi into meeting Abe, or into a public snub of Japan that allows Tokyo to paint itself as the aggrieved party in a gathering public relations war.

A seasoned Japanese diplomat secretly visited Beijing last month with the aim of trying to discuss ways to realise the meeting, sources familiar with the situation said. Hideo Tarumi, a veteran of Chinese affairs, was also in Beijing this spring behind the scenes, the sources added.