OMEN
04-16-2008, 11:24 AM
Japan's Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and China's President Hu Jintao are to bond over a game of table tennis, Kyodo news agency said on Tuesday, in a move reminiscent of the pingpong diplomacy that helped thaw ties between the United States and China in the 1970s.
Hu, expected to arrive next month on the first visit by a Chinese president in a decade, is likely to face Fukuda across the pingpong table in Tokyo on May 8 at Waseda University, the agency said, citing unidentified sources.
Though relations between the Asian neighbours have warmed since then prime minister Shinzo Abe visited Beijing 18 months ago, the two leaders have plenty of problems to bat back and forth.
There is no sign of a compromise in a long-running row over the development of gas fields under the sea that divides the two nations and Fukuda is likely to raise the topic of China's handling of riots in Tibet.
Food safety may also crop up after dumplings imported from China made several Japanese sick earlier this year.
"Including this kind of fun event in a tense itinerary is necessary to improve relations," Kyodo quoted a Foreign Ministry official as saying.
Exchanges of table tennis players helped improve ties between China and the United States, enabling President Richard Nixon to visit in 1972.
Fukuda, 71, is no stranger to sporting diplomacy. He played catch with Chinese premier Wen Jiabao during a visit to China last year.
Reuters
Hu, expected to arrive next month on the first visit by a Chinese president in a decade, is likely to face Fukuda across the pingpong table in Tokyo on May 8 at Waseda University, the agency said, citing unidentified sources.
Though relations between the Asian neighbours have warmed since then prime minister Shinzo Abe visited Beijing 18 months ago, the two leaders have plenty of problems to bat back and forth.
There is no sign of a compromise in a long-running row over the development of gas fields under the sea that divides the two nations and Fukuda is likely to raise the topic of China's handling of riots in Tibet.
Food safety may also crop up after dumplings imported from China made several Japanese sick earlier this year.
"Including this kind of fun event in a tense itinerary is necessary to improve relations," Kyodo quoted a Foreign Ministry official as saying.
Exchanges of table tennis players helped improve ties between China and the United States, enabling President Richard Nixon to visit in 1972.
Fukuda, 71, is no stranger to sporting diplomacy. He played catch with Chinese premier Wen Jiabao during a visit to China last year.
Reuters