cross-posted from: lemmy.sdf.org/post/44995727
Japan’s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said on Friday (Oct 31) she raised “serious concerns” about the South China Sea, Hong Kong and Xinjiang in her first meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Xi, in turn, told Japan’s first woman prime minister, long seen as a China hawk, at the talks in South Korea that he hopes her government will have a “correct understanding” of his country, according to state media.
Takaichi has been a regular visitor to the Yasukuni shrine that honours Japan’s war dead and is an outspoken backer of Taiwan, advocating security ties with the island that China claims as its territory.
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“We … expressed serious concerns regarding actions in the South China Sea, as well as the situations in Hong Kong and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region,” Takaichi said.
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Takaichi said she also raised with Xi the Japanese-administered Senkaku islands, known as the Diaoyu in China, in the East China Sea where Japanese and Chinese vessels frequently face off.
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Takaichi added that she also pressed for the release of Japanese citizens detained in China and requested that the safety of Japanese expatriates in China be ensured.
“I conveyed that we would like these matters to be addressed,” she said.
“Regarding Taiwan, there was some discussion from the Chinese side,” Takaichi said.
“I stated that for the stability and security in this region, maintaining good cross-strait relations is important,” she said.
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