China, Japan Resume Security Talks Following Four-Year Hiatus

Foreign Ministry and Defense officials from China and Japan began much anticipated high-level security talks in Tokyo on Thursday, the first such talks in four years, Xinhua reports.

The talks, launched in 1993 and last held in Beijing in January 2011, were suspended in 2012 after Japan decided to purchase a set of private islands claimed by China in the East China Sea. The islands in question, called the Diaoyu by China and Senkaku by Japan, have been a source of tension, with Japanese and Chinese naval and air forces reporting hundreds of encounters near the territory over the past year.

Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Jianchao stated ahead of the talks that the international security situation has changed over the past four years, and that it is important to keep a dialogue between the two countries open in the interests of maintaining peace in the region.

"I hope both sides will exchange views positively, actively and in a practical manner through this dialogue and achieve such targets as setting aside minor differences for the common good, fostering trust and promoting cooperation," Liu noted.

Liu's Japanese counterpart, Deputy Foreign Minister Shinsuke Sugiyama concurred, noting that "the best way to dissolve the concerns is to hold direct dialogue." The official added that "we expect that [the two countries] will significantly promote communications in the security and defense fields."

The prelude to the talks was an agreement signed late last year between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe aimed at improving dialogue over the disputed islands, including an air and maritime emergency contact mechanism, along with high-level negotiations on maritime issues.

The island dispute, along with smoldering issues over Japan's wartime history, has led to a double digit drop in Japan's investment into China in 2014. China remains the second-largest importer of Japanese goods after the United States, accounting for 18 percent ($129 billion US worth) of the country's exports in 2014. Meanwhile Chinese exports to Japan account for $150 billion, or 6.8 percent, of the country's total exports.

Relations between China and Japan have deteriorated under the Abe administration, with Japanese officials carrying out what some call historical revisionism and refusing to offer what China considers a sufficient apology for Japanese wartime atrocities during its 1937-1945 military campaign. Last week, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida noted that Japanese crimes could not be compared to Germany's, with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang responding that Japan would have to face up to its wartime history in order for a real improvement in relations to occur.