China cancels meeting with Japan

China’s vice-premier called off a meeting with the Japanese prime minister and suddenly left Tokyo today – a day earlier than expected – but Beijing’s reasons for ending a visit aimed at repairing strained relations remained a mystery.

Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi’s scheduled talks with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi today was to have capped Wu’s eight-day trip to Japan, the first by a top Chinese official in over a year.

The high-level exchange had been billed by both sides as a potential step toward improving ties soured by last month’s violent anti-Japanese riots in China over Japan’s World War II aggression, and Beijing’s resistance to Tokyo’s bid for a permanent UN Security Council seat.

China’s Foreign Ministry said Wu, who was supposed to leave tomorrow, had to return to Beijing for urgent but unspecified matters at home.

Caught off-guard by the cancellation, Japanese officials were left in the awkward position of rejecting speculation that Koizumi had been snubbed despite Wu’s reported plans to go ahead with a visit to Mongolia today.

A Japanese Foreign Ministry official said senior diplomats expected Beijing to show them the “courtesy” of a full explanation.

“It was their (China’s) request to hold a meeting, and I thought it would have been a good opportunity,” Koizumi told reporters. “I don’t understand why they’re cancelling it now.”

Tokyo and Beijing have been trying to settle a feud since anti-Japan protests in China in April inflamed tensions over a territorial dispute, clashes over maritime natural resources and differences over interpretations of wartime history.

Beijing has been angered by Koizumi’s annual pilgrimages to a Tokyo war shrine, saying they ignore Chinese sensitivities and pay homage to Japan’s militarist past.

Underscoring those dispute is the two powers’ long-standing rivalry for economic and political dominance in Asia.

Yesterday, Chinese President Hu Jintao met Japanese ruling party lawmakers in Beijing and reportedly expressed Beijing’s displeasure at Koizumi’s visits to Yasukuni Shrine, which honours Japan’s 2.5 million war dead, including convicted war criminal and wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki said today it was unlikely the pull-out was connected to Koizumi’s recent justifications for his shrine visits.

Koizumi also rejected the idea that the cancellation was Tokyo’s fault - though a top Liberal Democratic Party official said many Japanese might find it “impolite”.

“I have tried not to have a negative influence (on Japan-China relations),” Koizumi said. “We’ll meet whenever they want to.”

Experts, however, had a very different take.

Phillip Saunders, an Asian security expert at the National Defence University in Washington, said Beijing probably failed to win concessions from Tokyo that Koizumi would stop his shrine visits.

“One would assume that she (Wu) didn’t get what the Chinese side wanted so the effort is to cast blame on the Japanese side, and specifically on Koizumi, and cancelling the meeting with him is a symbolic way to do that,” said Saunders.

With Beijing keeping quiet about its true motives, the reason for Wu’s departure remains a mystery.

After Wu headed home, the Chinese Foreign Ministry released a statement saying she had cut short her trip to Japan and “return home to handle important and urgent official business.” It didn’t elaborate.

Wu is widely regarded as one of the Chinese government’s chief problem-solvers, having taken over as health minister during the SARS outbreak in 2003. While she is no longer health minister, it’s possible that Beijing wants to use her expertise to help with the country’s current bird flu scare.

In her speech before a group of leaders of Japan’s key business lobby Keidanren earlier today, Wu did not mention the cancellation of her talks with Koizumi, and only said she hoped the two countries work together to improve their ties.

“Today, China and Japan face serious challenges in their relations but also opportunity to improve and develop them,” Wu said. “I sincerely hope the governments and the people of China and Japan will make efforts to address the problems and take steps.”

Japan’s Foreign Ministry said that it was also committed to “deepening the dialogue” with China and promoting a “future-oriented” relationship.