Chinese Tantrums Continue: Wen Will Not Meet Kan

A planned meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was canceled by the Chinese side because Japan allegedly “ruined the atmosphere” for any talks between the leaders:

Foreign ministers from Japan and China had met earlier in the day on the sidelines of an Asian regional summit in an attempt to mend fences over the dispute, which plunged diplomatic relations to their lowest point in five years. The two sides were seeking to lay the foundation for talks between Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan.

But Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Hu Zhengyue told reporters that Japan was making untrue statements to the media and turning the contested islands — called Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan — into a “hot topic.”

“Japan spread groundless distortions. … They want to make the Diaoyu islands a hot-topic issue,” he said. “The Japanese side should take responsibility for ruining the atmosphere for leaders of the two countries.”

China’s tantrum seems to have taken place because the Japanese “lied” to the media about the resumption of talks about joint oil exploration around the Senkakus and because the Chinese were offended by the straightforward statements made to the media by Foreign Minister Okada and Secretary of State Clinton.

You can read some humorous reactions from 2-channelers over at Itai News. Because a news bulletin about the cancellation was put on the screen during the broadcast of a Harry Potter movie, some are complaining that it “ruined the atmosphere” of the film.

There has been a ton of other interesting news stories about Japan-China relations over the last week. Here are links to a few of them:

• More anti-Japanese protests took place in China over the past week. Japanese media reports make it sound like Chinese police were very quick in breaking up and forcing an end to several protest marches.
• Some news reports have tried to highlight the fact that there were a few anti-government signs at anti-Japanese protests held in China.
• Chinese police seized a woman from her house in the middle of the night after she tweeted her intention to bring a banner congratulating Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo to an anti-Japanese protest. She was released after being detained for 17 hours.
• During the boat captain crisis, China had told a group of Japanese students that they were no longer invited to attend the Shanghai Expo. They were finally re-invited and allowed to visit the pavilions a couple days ago, but as this ATV video shows, the Chinese told the students that they were not allowed to speak to the press and Chinese aggressively tried to block news cameras from filming any of the students:
• The boat collision tape will be shown to a very small number of Upper House members on Monday. No word yet on when, if ever, the public will get to see it.
• An angry nationalist has sent containers of “suspicious liquid” to the Chinese embassy and consulates in Japan.
• Japanese athletes have been warned to keep a very low profile when attending next month’s Asian Games in China.
• China has once again sent patrol boats to the area near the Senkakus.

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