China hints at Xi meeting with Japan’s new premier Takaichi

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(Corrects story on October 28 to say the Yasukuni shrine honours some soldiers convicted of war crimes by an international tribunal, not soldiers accused of war crimes, in the penultimate paragraph)

BEIJING (Reuters) -China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday talked up “high-level exchanges” in a call with Japanese counterpart Toshimitsu Motegi, hinting at a potential meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japan’s new premier, Sanae Takaichi.

Xi and Takaichi will attend this week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea, offering a window for a meeting on neutral ground between the Chinese leader and a Japanese prime minister known for hawkish views towards China.

Takaichi met with U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday, who welcomed her pledge to accelerate a military buildup and signed a series of deals on trade and rare earths.

Beijing will be wary of the U.S. and Japan forging closer ties under Takaichi, analysts say, seeing it as a potential shift in the balance of power across the Asia-Pacific region.

Be that as it may, “China has noticed several positive signals coming out of Japan’s new cabinet,” Wang said, without giving any further details.

“High-level exchanges are very important to China-Japan relations,” he added.

Beijing said on Friday that Xi would meet several heads of state at the summit – which Trump is expected to skip – but only specified South Korean President Lee Jae Myung.

Xi met with then Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Lima in November 2024.

China’s long-held position on U.S.-Japan relations is that it opposes any acts it views as harmful to its interests in the region, including the stationing of American troops across the country, which analysts say help deter Chinese aggression towards Taiwan.

Takaichi, a hardline conservative who was approved by parliament as Japan’s first female prime minister last week, is a regular visitor to Tokyo’s Yasukuni shrine, which honours Japan’s war dead, including soldiers and officials convicted of war crimes by an international tribunal.

“I hope Japan’s new cabinet will take a good first step in exchanges with China,” Wang said, using an expression likening relations to doing up a jacket – getting the first button right.

(Reporting by Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Kim Coghill)