Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe passes by a Chinese guard of honor as he arrives ahead of the APEC Economic Leaders’ Week at the airport in Beijing
Will they or won’t they? Whether leaders of feuding China and Japan will meet during the Asia-Pacific summit has prompted much speculation. It’s the most — but not the only — awkward relationship testing the hospitality of an increasingly assertive Beijing.
There were mounting indications that Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would hold some kind of tete-a-tete, however brief and unsubstantial, during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit today and Tuesday.
On Friday, China and Japan reached agreement to ramp up high-level contacts, more than two years after Beijing froze them amid a dispute over islands in the East China Sea and other contentious issues. The thaw came at a time when the relations need a nudge to get back on track, and the APEC gathering of 21 economies around the Pacific Rim, including the U.S., Australia, Mexico and South Korea, provides excellent cover to do so.
“Until now the door was closed, unfortunately, but this agreement has achieved a momentum,” Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on BS Fuji television.
The summit is the highest-
level international gathering Xi has hosted since taking leadership of the ruling Communist Party two years ago. Yet, awkwardly, APEC also includes many countries that Beijing has alienated over the past year or more.
China’s ties with both Vietnam and the Philippines have been rocked by dueling territorial claims over islands in the South China Sea.
Beijing has made no secret of its dislike of Philippine President Benigno Aquino III, and actually disinvited him to a trade fair in China last year after he incensed China by seeking U.N. arbitration to solve the territorial disputes.
Xi’s warmest ties will likely be with Russian President Vladimir Putin and South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye, who is also at odds with Japan.
Xi and Abe’s first interaction likely will come today at a welcoming banquet, and leaders of all 21 economies will attend the full summit on Tuesday.
Most likely, Beijing will agree to break the ice with an informal session between the two leaders, said Feng Wei of the Center for Japanese Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai.
“I don’t think it will achieve a breakthrough, but it’ll be a step by the two sides toward defusing the situation,” Feng said. Christopher Bodeen, Beijing , AP
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