Beijing, Jul 9 (PTI) Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday extended his condolences to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida over the demise of Shinzo Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, and lauded his positive contributions to improve Sino-Japanese ties.
Abe, 67, died on Friday morning after being shot from behind during an election campaign speech near a train station in the western prefecture of Nara.
Xi extended his condolences on the sudden and unfortunate passing of Abe on behalf of the Chinese government and people and himself, and expressed sympathies to the family of Abe, official media reported on Saturday.
He said that Abe made efforts to improve China-Japan relations when he was in office and contributed positively to this endeavour, adding that he had reached an important common understanding with the former Japanese leader on building a China-Japan relationship that meets the needs of the new era.
Xi noted that he stands ready to work with Kishida to continue to develop a China-Japan relationship of good neighbourliness, friendship and cooperation in accordance with the principles of the four China-Japan political documents.
Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, also sent a message of condolences to Abe’s widow Akie Abe, state-run China Daily reported.
“China is shocked” by Abe’s sudden death, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Friday, condoling the demise of the former prime minister.
Zhao said Abe contributed to the improvement and development of China-Japan relations.
Separated by the East China Sea which is part of the Western Pacific Ocean, China and Japan shared difficult relations throughout their long-chequered history.
Historically, they fought two bitter wars-the first Sino-Japanese war, 1894-95 and the second in 1934-45, during World War II.
It was called the Asian Holocaust as millions of Chinese civilians were killed.
The second war resulted in the Nanjing Massacre in which thousands of Chinese were killed. Nanjing is a city in eastern China.
In recent years, the relations turned sour over China’s expansive claims over the Senkaku islands, which Beijing calls Diaoyu islands in East China Sea.
But at the same time, Japan remained the most favoured tourist country for millions of Chinese who swarm Japanese cities every year.
Initially, Abe pushed forward with a policy to improve ties with China and met President Xi Jinping in 2014 during his visit to Beijing to take part in the APEC summit followed by another in 2019 at the G-20 summit in Osaka in Japan.
But later, he became a vocal critic of China, calling on Beijing to avoid antagonising other nations and stop demanding more territory from its neighbours.
Abe also deepened strategic partnerships with India, Vietnam and other regional powers as well as EU and UK and also upgraded Japan’s own defence capabilities.
Abe was one of the architects of the Quad, the US, India, Japan and Australia alliance aimed at countering China’s growing influence and military might. PTI KJV VM AKJ VM
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