China’s leading foreign policy official raised the stakes in the latest diplomatic dispute with Japan on Sunday, warning Tokyo not to make “wrong judgments” over the seizure of a Chinese fishing boat in contested waters.
The warning from State Councillor Dai Bingguo came after China, on Friday, postponed negotiations with Japan over disputed undersea gas beds in the East China Sea in protest over the detention of the captain of the Chinese boat.
Mr Dai issued the warning after summoning the Japanese ambassador in what Xinhua’s English language service described as “the wee hours”, the fourth time that Uichiro Niwa has been called to meet Chinese officials over the incident near the Japanese-controlled Senkaku islands.