Japan’s ambassador to China has warned that plans by the Tokyo municipal government to buy islands claimed by Beijing could spark an “extremely grave crisis” between east Asia’s leading powers.
Uichiro Niwa said the proposal, which Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara made in April, to purchase islands in the Senkaku group in the East China Sea would put at risk the progress achieved since the countries normalised relations in 1972.
“If Mr Ishihara’s plans are acted upon, then it will result in an extremely grave crisis in relations between Japan and China,” Mr Niwa told the Financial Times. “We cannot allow decades of past effort to be brought to nothing.”