U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that relations between Washington and Beijing had to be based on trust, amid a dispute over a new Chinese air defence zone which has rattled nerves regionally.
Beijing's decision to declare an air defence identification zone in an area that includes disputed islands has triggered protests from the United States, Japan and South Korea and dominated Biden's talks in Tokyo on Tuesday.
The United States has made clear it will stand by treaty obligations that require it to defend the Japanese-controlled islands, but it is also reluctant to get dragged into any military clash between rivals Japan and China.
Biden told Chinese President Xi Jinping he believed Xi was a candid and constructive person.
Xi said the international situation and regional landscape were "undergoing profound and complex changes".
"Regional issues keep cropping up and there are more pronounced global challenges such as climate change and energy security. The world is not tranquil," he added.
As Biden arrived, the official English-language China Daily, said in a strongly worded editorial that he "should not expect any substantial headway if he comes simply to repeat his government's previous erroneous and one-sided remarks".
"If the U.S. is truly committed to lowering tensions in the region, it must first stop acquiescing to Tokyo's dangerous brinkmanship. It must stop emboldening belligerent Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to constantly push the envelope of Japan's encroachments and provocations."
The Global Times, published by the Communist Party's official People's Daily, noted that Biden had not come down heavily on Japan's side, saying he failed to "sate Japan's appetite" for strong words.
"Biden needs to be reminded that Japan holds the key to peacefully solving the East China Sea dispute, because it is the Abe administration's recalcitrant denial of the existence of a dispute that has prevented Beijing and Tokyo from conducting meaningful communication and crisis control," it said.
Source: Reuters
