China’s Xi Planned State Visit to Japan Delayed Over Coronavirus

(Bloomberg) --

© Photographer: Xinhua News Agency/Xinhua News Agency Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, learns about the progress on the vaccine, anti-body, medicine and fast testing kit research and application during his visit to the Academy of Military Medical Sciences in Beijing, capital of China, March 2, 2020.

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s much anticipated state visit to Tokyo has been postponed, the Japanese government said.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference Thursday that the two countries agreed to postpone the visit. The trip -- expected in April --would’ve been the first of its kind in a decade, and a milestone in Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s rapprochement with his larger neighbor.

While Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian didn’t immediately confirm the decision, he told regular news briefing Thursday that the visit would happen at the “most appropriate timing.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Isabel Reynolds in Tokyo at ireynolds1@bloomberg.net;Sharon Chen in Beijing at schen462@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Jon Herskovitz

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