Agencies/Beijing
The US should not be “hijacked by Tokyo’s right-leaning politicians” over some disputed islands in the East China Sea, the official Xinhua news agency warned in a commentary yesterday coinciding with a visit to Washington by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Japanese politicians “could begin by admitting the existence of such a dispute with China over the islands, which Japan stole from China during the 1890s,” Xinhua wrote.
“Chinese people long for peace, but will not be intimidated by the threat of force and tough rhetoric when it comes to the country’s core interests.”
According to Xinhua, Abe had underestimated China’s determination to protect its territorial integrity and should “calm down.”
Abe on Friday had in turn warned China not to underestimate Japanese resolve, saying he had told US President Barack Obama that his country would show restraint.
Japan has also asked the Chinese government to explain why Chinese coastguard have placed buoys that might be used to monitor the presence of submarines around the islands.
Japan’s purchase of the disputed islets in mid-September sparked protests in dozens of Chinese cities and a boycott of Japanese products. The Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands, which China calls Diaoyu, are also claimed by Taiwan, which refers to them as Tiaoyutai.
Earlier on Friday, US President Barack Obama pledged with Japan’s new leader to take a firm line on a defiant North Korea but the two sides also tried to calm rising tensions between Tokyo and China.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe carefully avoided disagreements with Obama after previous Japanese governments’ rifts and declared: “The alliance between Japan and the US is back now. It’s completely back.”
Obama promised to work closely with the conservative leader, whose Liberal Democratic Party swept back into power in December on a platform that includes boosting defense spending and aggressively stimulating a long-flaccid economy.
“You can rest assured that you will have a strong partner in the US throughout your tenure,” Obama told Abe in the Oval Office, calling the alliance with Japan “the central foundation” for US policy in Asia.
Obama said the two leaders discussed “our concerns about the provocative actions that have been taken by North Korea and our determination to take strong actions in response.”
North Korea carried out its third nuclear test on February 12, ignoring warnings even from its ally China.
Abe, who first rose to political prominence as an advocate for a tough line on North Korea, said he agreed with Obama’s position of not offering “rewards” to Pyongyang and on the need for a new UN Security Council resolution.
But the White House appeared to want to lower the temperature between Japan and China, which has increasingly sent vessels near Japanese-controlled islands known as the Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese.
Obama did not mention the issue but Secretary of State John Kerry, in a separate meeting with Japan’s Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, said he wanted to “compliment Japan on the restraint it has shown.”
The meetings came hours after Beijing lashed out at Abe over a newspaper interview in which he charged that China would eventually hurt its investment climate through assertive actions in the region.
Abe said the US-Japan alliance was “a stabilising factor” and—in remarks he nudged his translator to read out—added: “We have always been dealing with the Senkaku issue in a calm manner and we will continue to do so.”
The Japanese leader later spoke in stronger terms in an address at a think tank. While saying he wanted to cooperate with China’s incoming leader Xi Jinping, Abe insisted that the islands belonged to Japan.
“We simply cannot tolerate any challenge now and in the future. No nation should make any miscalculation about the firmness of our resolve,” Abe said at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
The exchange marked a different tone than one month ago, when then secretary of state Hillary Clinton warned China not to challenge Japan’s control of the islands, triggering a rebuke from Beijing