BEIJING - Chinese President Xi Jinping is unlikely to hold formal talks with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on the sidelines of a regional economic summit next week as bilateral tensions persist over her remarks on a Taiwan emergency, diplomatic sources said Tuesday.
Japan will be "the only nation" among major participants in next week's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen whose leader will not meet with Xi, an informed Chinese source said, indicating that Beijing's hardline stance toward the Takaichi government remains unchanged.
Japanese officials seeking to break the impasse during the two-day summit are now believed to be considering an informal exchange or a handshake between the two leaders as Xi hosts other APEC representatives.
The Chinese source said Xi could shake hands with Takaichi "in line with diplomatic protocol," raising hopes among Japanese government officials that images of such an encounter could help revive bilateral business and municipal-level exchanges that have declined since her remarks.
However, Beijing may not allow such images to be distributed domestically.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are among the leaders expected to attend the Nov. 18-19 summit of 21 Pacific Rim economies, which include Australia, Canada, South Korea and several Southeast Asian and Latin American countries.
Xi and Trump are expected to hold their third in-person talks this year on the sidelines of the APEC summit, while speculation is growing that they may also hold their first trilateral talks with Putin.
The freeze in Sino-Japanese ties stems from Takaichi's suggestion about a year ago that an attack on Taiwan, a self-governing democratic island that Beijing claims as part of its territory, could prompt Japan's Self-Defense Forces to act in support of the United States.
Angered by her parliamentary remarks, Beijing has since taken a series of political and economic retaliatory measures against Tokyo, including advising Chinese citizens against traveling to Japan, banning imports of Japanese seafood and restricting exports of rare earths used in high-tech products.
Intergovernmental dialogue between Japan and China has stalled amid the dispute, although former Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya met with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and top diplomat Wang Yi in September while leading a Japanese business delegation that included corporate executives.
On the eve of the first anniversary of Takaichi's remarks, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said at a press conference, "The current serious difficulties in China-Japan relations are entirely the responsibility of the Japanese side."
Criticizing Tokyo for failing to demonstrate "any sincerity" to "correct the wrongdoings," Guo again demanded at Friday's news conference that Japan "correct the erroneous words and deeds" on the issue of Taiwan.
Takaichi told reporters on Friday that Japan will work to build constructive and stable ties with China, calling the country "an important neighbor."
In late October last year, Xi and Takaichi held their first meeting in South Korea on the sidelines of an APEC summit despite Beijing's wariness of the new Japanese leader, known for her pro-Taiwan stance and hawkish security views. She took office shortly before the regional gathering.
A Chinese diplomatic source said the country's leadership criticized the Chinese Foreign Ministry for arranging the bilateral meeting after Takaichi made the controversial parliamentary remarks shortly afterward.
Beijing felt Tokyo had made it "lose face" after Takaichi posted on social media a photo of herself shaking hands with Taiwan's former vice premier Lin Hsin-i, who attended the 2025 APEC summit, a day after her talks with Xi in Gyeongju, a Chinese diplomatic official said.
With the Takaichi government yet to respond to Beijing's demand that she withdraw her remarks, another Chinese source said, "We have reached a point where simply retracting the comments will no longer be enough" to mend Sino-Japanese relations, dismissing the possibility of concessions by China.
At the last APEC summit hosted by China in 2014, Xi held his first talks with then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after months of behind-the-scenes negotiations to ease tensions over wartime history and territorial sovereignty.
But footage and photos showed Xi did not smile as he shook hands with Abe before their talks.
The Global Times, a tabloid affiliated with the ruling Communist Party, claimed Tokyo has a "guilty conscience" in a Tuesday editorial headlined "Worried about being 'snubbed' at APEC meeting?" that criticized the Takaichi government's defense buildup policy and approach to historical issues.
As Japan plans to revise three security documents by the end of the year to update its defense strategy, China is expected to intensify its criticism of Japanese "neo-militarism" amid Takaichi's push to bolster the country's defense capabilities.
Tokyo has sought to accelerate its defense buildup amid China's growing assertiveness, Russia's aggression against Ukraine and North Korea's nuclear and missile development programs, marking a shift from its exclusively defense-oriented posture.
