Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to reset relations after an escalation in bilateral tensions, invoking a 2006 visit to Beijing during his first administration.
“Since there are issues, it is all the more important to have a leaders’ meeting,” Abe said in an interview in the prime minister’s official residence in Tokyo. “I visited China as prime minister and met with [former Chinese president] Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) and we shared the view that we should develop our ties based on a strategic, mutually beneficial relationship. Now is the time to go back to that starting point.”
Abe’s call on Friday is his most explicit yet for a summit since China’s declaration last month of an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) that overlaps with Japan’s over the East China Sea.
Photo:Bloomberg
Abe has yet to hold a summit with either Xi or South Korean President Park Geun-hye, amid continuing territorial disputes with both neighbors. The impasse is a contrast from Abe’s 2006-2007 term in office, when he repaired ties with China that had frayed under his predecessor, former Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi — whose visits to a national war shrine stirred Chinese resentment.
Asked whether China is open to a summit with Japan, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei (洪磊) told reporters in Beijing on Friday that “the problem is Japan cannot look straight at history and reality, and do the right thing on certain issues. So we once again ask Japan to look at history and reality, and pursue the same direction as China.”
The US urged China on Friday to set up an emergency hotline with Japan and South Korea to avoid confusion in its ADIZ.
Washington does not recognize Beijing’s ADIZ and has called on China not to press ahead with its implementation.
“As we work through this process, they need to do a few things right now to immediately lower tensions,” US Department of State deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said.
“China should work with other countries, including Japan and South Korea, to establish confidence-building measures, including emergency communications channels to address the dangers that its recent announcement has created,” she added.
Meanwhile, Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop defied a stern rebuke from Beijing yesterday to repeat concerns that the ADIZ has increased regional tensions.
“Australia is concerned about peace and stability in our region, and we don’t want to see any escalation of tensions, we want to see a de-escalation,” she told reporters in Beijing when asked about Australia’s stance on the ADIZ.
Her remarks came after China’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) on Friday reproached Bishop for Australia’s critical stance on the ADIZ.
Wang accused Australia of “jeopardizing bilateral mutual trust,” and said “the entire Chinese society and the general public are deeply dissatisfied” with Australia’s comments, Australian broadcaster ABC reported.
Bishop dismissed suggestions that the ADIZ dispute had damaged relations and said that negotiations on several issues, including a free-trade deal between the two countries, had been “productive.”
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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