Japan, China foreign ministers to meet in New York over fatal stabbing of Japanese boy in Shenzhen
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
A 10-year-old Japanese schoolboy living in Shenzhen was stabbed in the street on his way to class on Sept 18.
PHOTO: AFP
Follow topic:
TOKYO – Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa will meet her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in New York on Sept 23, Tokyo’s Foreign Ministry said.
Ms Kamikawa will request that security be enforced following the fatal stabbing of a Japanese schoolboy
Separately, Japan’s vice-foreign minister will also discuss the fatal stabbing with Beijing on Sept 23, the ministry said.
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Yoshifumi Tsuge is slated to visit Beijing from Sept 22 to 24 “to deal with the death of a child at Shenzhen Japanese School”, the ministry said in a statement on Sept 22.
A child enrolled in a Japanese school died after being stabbed last week in Shenzhen, in southern China, the second such attack near Japanese educational centres in the country in recent months.
Some Japanese companies in China have offered to send their staff and families home following the incident, Reuters has reported, with such safety concerns coming as ties are strained between the countries.
After the Shenzhen attack last week, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida demanded an explanation and urged China to ensure the safety of Japanese citizens.
Beijing expressed “regret and sadness” for what it called an isolated incident that “could happen in any country”.
Japanese media reported that the boy was a 10-year-old Japanese national living in Shenzhen, and China’s Foreign Ministry has said his father is Japanese and that his mother is Chinese.
Police have detained a 44-year-old man suspected of stabbing the child.
While it remains unclear if the attack was politically motivated, it happened on Sept 18, the anniversary of the 1931 “Mukden incident” or “Manchurian incident”, which is known in China as a day of national humiliation.
In June, a Japanese mother and child were injured in another knife attack
A 55-year-old Chinese woman died attempting to stop the assailant and was honoured by the local government after her death.
Relations between the countries have worsened as China grows more assertive in territorial disputes in the region, and as Japan boosts security ties with the United States and its allies.
But Beijing announced last week that it would “gradually resume” importing seafood from Japan after a ban in August 2023 over the release of water from the Fukushima nuclear plant.
Last week, Japan said a Chinese aircraft carrier sailed between two Japanese islands near Taiwan for the first time.
Tokyo slammed the incident as “totally unacceptable”, while China said it had complied with international law. AFP, REUTERS
