 Britain's Charles to skip banquet with Chinese president London (AFP) Oct 14, 2015 - Britain's Prince Charles is to skip a state banquet during a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping next week, the office of the heir to the throne said on Wednesday. The Prince of Wales will hold "one-to-one talks" with the president but will not attend the banquet, to be hosted by Queen Elizabeth II. Charles is a supporter of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader whom China views as a dangerous separatist. The prince was accused of boycotting a Chinese state visit to Britain in 1999, when he failed to attend a banquet hosted for Jiang Zemin, who was then Chinese president. A former private secretary to Charles, Mark Bolland, described it as "a deliberate snub" in a court statement in 2006. "He did not approve of the Chinese regime, and is a great supporter of the Dalai Lama, whom he views as being oppressed by the Chinese," Bolland said. Charles also described Chinese leaders as "appalling old waxworks" in journal writings about the 1997 transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong from Britain to China. The jibes were later published in the press. A statement from his official residence, Clarence House, emphasised that Charles would spend ample time with Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan during the trip, which begins on October 20. "The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall have significant involvement in the State Visit by The President of The People's Republic of China," a Clarence House spokeswoman said. Charles and his wife Camilla are to meet Xi and Peng at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel on Tuesday, before travelling to a ceremonial welcome and lunch at Buckingham Palace. Xi and Peng will then be guests at Clarence House for tea, the spokeswoman said. The visit by Xi comes as Britain strives to strengthen ties with Beijing and build business links with the world's second-largest economy. It follows a trip to China by British finance minister George Osborne, during which he said Britain should be China's "best partner in the West". Diplomatic relations between the two states had cooled in 2012, when British Prime Minister David Cameron met with the Dalai Lama in London.
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Japan's premier Wednesday said his country's relationship with China must move away from an "excessive focus" on the past during a meeting with a top Beijing envoy.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made the remarks to State Councillor Yang Jiechi, the highest-ranking Chinese diplomat to make an official trip to Tokyo for several years, a senior Japanese government official said.
His visit signals a possible thaw between the world's second and third largest economies despite territorial disputes and tensions -- issues that continually dog diplomatic visits.
During the meeting Abe told Yang that "Japan has an unshakable history as a pacifist nation," and has learned lessons from its past, according to Hiroshige Seko, deputy chief cabinet secretary.
"We must build future-oriented Japan-China relations, rather than keeping an excessive focus on unfortunate past," Seko quoted the premier as telling the Chinese diplomat.
Relations between Japan and China -- long terse over Beijing's belief that Tokyo has yet to seriously atone for its wartime atrocities -- plunged in 2012 following Tokyo's nationalisation of disputed islands in the East China Sea.
Beijing also balks at Abe's regular visits to the controversial Yasukuni war shrine while the Communist party stokes Chinese nationalism as part of its claim to legitimacy.
More recently ties have improved, but there are still regular flare ups between the two nations.
Japan lashed out last week at UNESCO's decision to inscribe documents related to the Nanjing massacre in its Memory of the World register following a request from Beijing.
Tokyo has threatened to withdraw funding for the UN body over the row, while China criticised Japanese anger.
Abe "expressed that he regrets the registration of the Nanjing incident" and said improvement of public sentiments toward each other is a key to advancing the bilateral relations, according to Seko.
Yang reiterated China's "officially stated positions," Seko said.
The massacre, often referred to as the "Rape of Nanjing", was a period of mass murder and rape committed by Japanese troops after the fall of the Chinese city of Nanjing in 1937.
Despite the clear disagreements, Seko put a positive spin on the meeting, describing it as "warm and friendly," in line with attempts by Abe and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to gradually improve their relations.
Abe told Yang that Japan and China share responsibility to keep peace in the region, and voiced his wishes to meet with Chinese leaders at international meetings, such as G20, Seko said.
Yang supported Abe's views on regional stability and said he "took note" about Abe's enthusiasm in improving bilateral ties, Seko said.
On Tuesday evening China's state-run Xinhua news agency quoted Yang as saying Sino-Japanese ties had been improving.
"The Chinese government attaches great importance to China-Japan ties and is willing to maintain dialogue and contact with Japan," Yang was quoted as saying.
"China would like to cooperate closely with Japan to boost bilateral ties in a spirit of drawing lessons from history and facing up to the future," the Beijing envoy added, according to Xinhua.
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