Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to head to Japan on summit mission

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit Japan from Sunday in a further sign of warming ties between the two countries and as Beijing and Tokyo prepare for higher-level diplomatic exchanges next month. 

The three-day trip by Wang, who was elevated to state councillor last month, would revive a long-stalled bilateral economic dialogue and pave the way for Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s first official visit to Japan next month, the foreign ministry announced on Wednesday.  

Li will attend the China-Japan-South Korea summit, which has been suspended since 2015, amid speculation about possible exchanges in the coming months between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Sino-Japanese relations have been plagued by a long-running territorial dispute in the East China Sea over the Diaoyu Islands, known as Senkaku Islands in Japan, a row that intensified after the Japanese government effectively put them under its control in September 2012.