From Reuters, via WNED:
Japan and China held talks in Beijing Monday but failed to halt a free fall in ties after a third weekend of demonstrations in China against what many see as Japan’s inability to face up to its wartime past.
There was little sign of headway after the violent protests which, along with disputes over territory, a Japanese history textbook and Tokyo’s bid for a permanent U.N. Security Council seat, have dragged relations to their lowest point in decades.
Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura met State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan, a former foreign minister with broad responsibility for diplomatic issues, who noted that Machimura was visiting “under very difficult circumstances in Sino-Japanese relations,” which were established in 1972.
