Side-stepping any comment as to whether Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of the APEC Summit to be held this November in Beijing, the Chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) and No: 3 ranked Politburo Standing Committee member, Zhang Dejiang, suggested that China was open to contacts with Japanese lawmakers. 

 

Meeting members of the Japan-China friendship parliamentarians’ union, which included Masahiko Komura, Vice President of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, on May 5, 2014, Zhang Dejiang added “The current situation surrounding China and Japan is primarily attributed to the Japanese side. I want you to take concrete actions to show that you are committed to eliminating problems.” During the meeting Masahiko Komura conveyed Tokyo’s desire for a Japan-China summit at an early date. He said: “It is preferable to hold a summit on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Conference forum, that is Abe’s intention.”

Zhang Dejiang responded: “I will tell President Xi Jinping of that.”

 

This was the first formal meeting between Japanese legislators and a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a gift to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo in December. The multi-party group of Japanese legislators had requested a meeting with at least one of the seven members of the Standing Committee. Zhang Dejiang met them in response to the request.