There's no truth to a Japanese foreign ministry statement that China's patrols around the Diaoyu Islands have badly hurt Sino-Japanese relations, Chinese experts said.
Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida asked China to promptly withdraw its Coast Guard vessels from waters surrounding the Diaoyu Islands during his meeting with Chinese Ambassador Cheng Yonghua on Tuesday, Japan's Kyodo News reported.
"We cannot accept that [China] is taking actions that unilaterally raise tensions," Kishida said, adding that "Japan-China relations are markedly deteriorating," according to a statement released on the Japanese foreign ministry website.
"I told him [Kishida] that the Diaoyu [Islands] are an integral part of Chinese territory and that it is natural that Chinese ships conduct activities in the waters in question, " Cheng was quoted by Reuters on Tuesday as saying.
"It is totally groundless, for Japan to make those remarks. Japan is the one who intentionally raises the East China Sea issue as well as hypes the 'China threat' to serve its domestic political needs," Lü Yaodong, director of the Institute of Japanese Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.
Lü added that "the deterioration of Sino-Japanese ties can be attributed to Japan's meddling in the South China Sea disputes as a non-claimant."
Responding to Japan's protests, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said in a statement on Saturday that "the Chinese side is working to properly manage the situation in the relevant waters."
"We strongly hope that the Japanese side will honor its principled agreement with us, and deal with the current situation with a cool head instead of taking actions that may raise tensions or complicate things," Hua said.
Japan has reportedly lodged multiple protests to the Chinese Embassy in Japan and to China's Foreign Ministry from Friday to Sunday.
