Senior Chinese and Japanese government representatives met on Monday to talk about maritime issues in the East China Sea’s disputed waters as Beijing practiced wargames near Taiwan.
The meetings, which are part of a regular round of maritime dialogues that began in 2012, come as Chinese airplanes and warships simulated strikes against Taiwan following the island’s President Tsai Ing-wen’s visit to the United States, where she met U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Prior to the start of the negotiations, a senior Japanese government official stated that Japan had been continuously and “with great interest” monitoring China’s military exercises near Taiwan.
Meetings between senior US and Taiwanese officials are viewed as interference in China’s domestic affairs by Beijing, which considers Taiwan to be a part of China. It has not ruled out using force to take control of what it regards as a rogue province.
China’s delegation was headed by Hong Liang, director-general of the Boundary and Ocean Affairs at China’s Foreign Ministry, while Japan’s side was led by director-general of Asian and Oceanian Affairs Takehiro Funakoshi.
During the last meeting in November, Hong criticized Tokyo for commenting on China’s activity in the Taiwan Strait, the waters that separate the island from the mainland. He also asked Japan to pull its ships back from the seas around islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries.
Their coast guard ships regularly confront each other in the waters around the Japanese-controlled islands, which are known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China.
The United States has stated that it would see any move by China to seize the islands as an attack on its ally, despite the fact that it has not taken a position about the sovereignty of the region.
A military hotline was set up by China and Japan last month to help them resolve any air and marine incidents in the disputed regions.
