Beijing rejects Tokyo's demand to withdraw its application to UNESCO to include the experience of "comfort women" in the UN body's Memory of the World program.
China asks UNESCO to preserve archives that prove the suffering of "comfort women" after comments by Japanese officials casting doubt on their plight.
China Daily and Japan's Genron NPO think tank co-hosted a preparatory meeting on Sunday in Beijing for the 10th Beijing-Tokyo Forum, an annual event which is expected to take place in late September.
Despite strained political relations between China and Japan, trade is flowing, two-way investments are recovering and the trend is expected to continue in the near future, experts said.
When the Beijing-Tokyo Forum first became reality in August 2005, relations between China and Japan were experiencing difficulties. Now, it is amid a new wave of tensions that the two sides are busy preparing for the tenth session of the forum, which will be held in Tokyo in September.
On Aug 15, 2006, Juni-chiro Koizumi, the Japanese prime minister, visited Yasukuni Shrine, where war criminals are honored, on the anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War II. Koizumi visited the shrine for six consecutive years after taking office in 2001.
Observers report great improvement in everyday exchanges between China and Japan, but they said Abe's conduct has been an obstacle to mending ties.
Abe's speech at this year's Shangri-La Dialogue suggesting they will be the stewards of peace in Asia was simply self-serving hypocrisy
Tadatomo Yoshida, Japan's Social Democratic Party leader, said he will use his upcoming trip to Beijing to sound out the Chinese government about a possible summit between the nations.
Japan had reportedly pushed the G7 to blame China for tensions in the East and South China Sea, with the aim of applying international pressure on Beijing.
Chinese military scholar Xu Qiyu said on Friday that he had asked Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a question concerning historical facts at a regional security forum – but that he did not receive a satisfactory answer.
The brief opening of an Asian security summit in Singapore on Friday was just like the city state's capricious weather, especially when panelists touched on deadlocked Sino-Japanese ties.
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