First China-Japan summit in five years begins
Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe arrived in China today for a fence-mending visit between the estranged Asian powers that will also focus on North Korea’s threats to carry out a nuclear test.
Abe was to review a Chinese military honour guard in central Beijing before meeting with Chinese president Hu Jintao and other Chinese leaders.
The visit marks the first formal summit between the countries’ leaders in five years, after China cancelled previous meetings to protest pilgrimages to a Tokyo war shrine by Abe’s predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi.
The rancour has spilled over into disagreements over oil and gas rights in contested parts of the East China Sea and over Japan’s lobbying for a UN Security Council seat and a greater international role.
