BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed his condolences on Saturday (July 9) following the death of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who Xi said worked hard to improve relations between neighbors, reported Chinese state media.
Japan’s oldest modern leader was gunned down in the Japanese city of Nara on Friday while delivering a campaign speech for a parliamentary election. A 41-year-old Japanese suspect has been arrested.
“I deeply regret his sudden death,” Xi said, quoted by state media, on behalf of the Chinese government and people in a message to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
“I once reached an important consensus with him on building China-Japan relations.”
Xi also offered his condolences to Abe’s family, state television reported.
Relations between Japan and China have been plagued for years by a territorial dispute over a group of islets in the East China Sea as well as the legacy of Japan’s past military aggression.
But relations have warmed while Abe was prime minister, particularly during his second term from 2012 to 2020.
Abe paid a rare state visit to China in 2018 and, in return, Xi was due to visit Japan in 2020, which would have marked the first trip by a Chinese president to Japan since 2008.
But the plan was scrapped due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Bilateral relations have grown more complex in recent months, with Kishida’s government calling for increased defense spending and expressing concern over threats Taiwan faces.
Kishida also said he was disappointed with China’s efforts to develop areas in the East China Sea, saying it was “unacceptable”.
The dispute over the East China Sea islands, which Japan controls but China also claims, and the waters around them, has long been a source of tension between the world’s second and third largest economies.
In his message to Kishida, Xi said he was willing to work with him to develop friendly and good neighborly ties.