Chinese, Japanese FMs hold informal contact on ties

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida held an informal contact late Saturday to exchange views on ways to improve China-Japan relations.

During their talks on the sidelines of the series of Foreign Ministers Meetings on East Asia cooperation, Wang clarified China's principles and stance in a serious manner, and demanded the Japanese side to make concrete efforts to remove the political barriers in the relations between the two countries.

The China-Japan relationship took a nosedive after the Japanese government's "purchase" of the Diaoyu Islands in September 2012 and further soured due to Tokyo's unrepentant attitude toward its wartime history.