Japan and China Fail to Ease Tensions Over Island Dispute
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Diplomats from China and Japan failed to ease tensions over a territorial dispute as the Japanese Coast Guard used water cannons to drive off Taiwanese vessels near the islands at the center of the spat.
Japan’s move this month to buy the islands was “blatantly illegal,” China’s Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun told Japanese counterpart Chikao Kawai today in Beijing, according to a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement. While the two sides agreed to more discussions, Kawai said no consensus was reached to hold a foreign ministers’ meeting this week at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Kyodo News reported.