BEIJING, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- Japan sent its vice foreign minister to China for talks as bilateral tensions worsen over a group of islands in the East China Sea, claimed by both.
Even as Japan again protested the arrival of Chinese ships in the waters of Senkaku Islands, calling it an intrusion in its territorial waters, Vice Foreign Minister Chikao Kawai arrived in Beijing for talks to calm the situation. China calls the islands Diaoyu.
"I will explain Japan's thinking as well as listen to China's thinking" on the island issue, Kawai told reporters Monday on arrival at Beijing's airport, Kyodo News reported.
The two sides were to hold vice ministerial talks as China's official media continued to issue a barrage of harshly worded articles attacking the Japanese government's recent nationalization of the uninhabited islands, which have gained international attention because of recent reports about rich natural resources around them.
Kawai's China trip comes in the absence of any signs that the issue would be settled any time soon, Kyodo reported.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun would meet Kawai while stressing, "China will elaborate on its position on the Diaoyu Islands, demand that Japan correct its mistakes and make efforts to improve Sino-Japanese relations."
There have been widespread and violent protests in China since Japan's Sept. 11 announcement of the islands' nationalization and in the latest developments, China even canceled the events scheduled to be held in Beijing Thursday to observe the 40th anniversary of the normalization of ties between the two countries.
However, Osamu Fujimura, spokesman for the Japanese government, said it is important for the two sides to "deepen strategic relations of mutual benefit" from a broad perspective, Kyodo reported.
But Chinese spokesman Hong said Japan "must bear full responsibility for all the consequences."
China also has been using the island issue to attack the United States for its support of Japan.
In the latest such criticism, China's official Xinhua news agency said the United States "through backroom deals, illegally transferred the Diaoyu Islands to Japan when it signed the Okinawa Reversion Agreement with Japan in 1971. China has never accepted it."
The Xinhua report said if the Japanese authorities "really respected the rule of law, it should not have 'purchased' the Diaoyu Islands in the first place."
Separately, writing in the Tuesday issue of China Daily, Tao Wenzhao with the Institute of American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said the "eastward shift of (the United States') strategic focus in recent years has resulted in some strategic chaos in the Asia-Pacific region and caused controversy and misgivings among countries in the region."
Tao wrote although some senior U.S. official including Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who recently visited China, "have said such a strategy is not targeted at specific countries, the Obama administration has never clarified the new strategy," adding activities such as the recent military exercises with Asian allies in the Asia-Pacific region "bear the hallmarks of a 'China containment' policy."
In other developments, Kyodo, quoting business sources, said Chinese customs authorities had informed Japanese cargo delivery companies that they will tighten the inspection of Japanese air cargo arriving at Beijing airport, which appeared to be part of China's pressure over the island dispute.
The report said Chinese customs authorities in key Chinese sea ports have already enforced tighter inspection of Japanese cargoes as also Chinese products shipped to Japan.
Kyodo also reported about 60 fishing boats from Taiwan, which also claims the islands, were due in the waters of Senkaku Tuesday.
