China’s top diplomat has urged Japan to “calmly” handle last week’s fatal stabbing of a Japanese schoolboy in the Chinese city of Shenzhen and “avoid politicizing or exaggerating the issue,” as Japan’s foreign minister demanded Beijing deal with “unfounded and malicious anti-Japanese” social media posts.
Beijing has been trying to prevent the stabbing of the 10-year-old boy, who was attacked on his way to a Japanese school, from spiraling into a wider diplomatic row between the Asian powers, characterizing it as a lone act and downplaying the political implications.
“China will investigate and handle the case of the attack on a Japanese student in Shenzhen in accordance with the law, and will, as always, protect the safety of all foreign citizens in China,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry quoted Wang Yi as telling his Japanese counterpart, Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, during their 55-minute meeting at United Nations headquarters in New York on Monday.
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