China, Japan officials meet amid Taiwan tensions

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese and Japanese officials have met in northern China amid tensions over China’s military threats against Taiwan. The meeting Wednesday between senior foreign affairs advisor Yang Jiechi and the head of Japan’s National Security Secretariat, Takeo Akiba, followed China’s cancellation of a meeting between the foreign ministers of the two countries after Japan signed on to a statement from the Group of Seven industrialized countries criticizing China’s threatening war games surrounding Taiwan earlier this month. Japan has also issued diplomatic protests over China’s firing of missiles into its exclusive economic zone during this month’s exercises that saw Chinese warplanes and navy ships cross the middle zone of the Taiwan Strait.