Improving Strained Ties

Japanese Ministry of Defense/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Self-Defense_Forces

China urges Japan to pursue peaceful path under new defense chief

AFP-JIJI

DEC 26, 2014

BEIJING – China on Thursday called on Japan to pursue “peaceful development” under its new defense minister as tensions simmer over a territorial dispute and wartime history.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday appointed Gen Nakatani, 57, to replace Akinori Eto at the defense portfolio after Eto declined reappointment in the midst of a political funding scandal.

Nakatani headed the defense agency — later upgraded to a ministry — in 2001-2002 and is said to agree with Abe on the need for the nation to beef up its national security.

“It is our position that whoever serves as the defense minister of Japan, the Japanese side should follow the path of peaceful development,” Chinese defense ministry spokesman Yang Yujun told a monthly briefing.

Yang also asked Japan to implement a bilateral agreement reached in November aimed at improving strained ties.

The four-point agreement paved the way for the first formal bilateral meeting between Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping last month on the sidelines of the APEC Asia-Pacific leaders’ meeting in Beijing.

Chinese state media echoed that line. “Abe and his new defense minister . . . need to tread carefully,” the Xinhua News Agency said Wednesday.

A tense dispute over control of the uninhabited Senkaku islands in the East China Sea, administered by Japan but also claimed by China, as well as Beijing’s anger over a visit by Abe a year ago to the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors war dead including convicted war criminals, has soured ties between Asia’s two biggest economies.

 Source: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/12/26/national/politics-diplomacy/china-urges-japan-to-pursue-peaceful-path-under-new-defense-chief/#.VJ4FuV4gIg