The Japan Times on August 26, 2014, reported that Ms Li Xiaolin, the youngest daughter of former President Li Xiannian, is planning to visit Japan in mid-September when she could hold talks with senior Japanese officials. Ms Li Xiaolin is head of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, and was Xi Jinping’s “emissary” who met Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo the day before he took office Dec. 26, 2012.  Li Xiaolin, who has been a friend of Xi since they were children, also met secretly with Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso and Masahiko Komura, Vice Chief of Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party, when she visited Tokyo in spring 2013. 

The official reason for Li Xiaolin’s planned trip is to participate in an event in Osaka on Sept. 22 and 23 aimed at promoting people-to-people exchanges between the two countries. She is also considering attending a ballet with the theme of friendship between Japan and China on Oct. 7 in Tokyo. There have been no official talks between Xi Jinping and Shinzo Abe since the latter took office because of the tension over the Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands.