Sawt Falasteen - Xi primed to meet Japan, Canada leaders after Trump summit

The meeting in Busan, South Korea saw Trump announce a cut in US tariffs and Xi agree to maintain flows of rare-earth minerals and hike soybean imports.

Remaining in South Korea for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit as Trump flew home, Xi was expected to meet Japan's first woman premier, Sanae Takaichi.

Takaichi, a regular visitor to the flashpoint Yasukuni shrine honouring Japan's war dead, is seen as a China hawk, but since being elected, she has toned down her remarks.

In her first policy address last Friday, she declared that the military activities of China, North Korea and Russia "have become a grave concern".

She announced that Japan would be spending two percent of gross domestic product on defence this fiscal year -- two years ahead of schedule.

China responded by saying that there were "serious doubts among (Japan's) Asian neighbours and the international community about whether Japan is truly committed to an exclusively defensive posture and the path of peaceful development".

On Trump's visit to Japan on his way to Busan, Takaichi spoke alongside the US leader aboard a US aircraft carrier and said her country faces "unprecedented" security dangers.

Japanese media said that Takaichi was expected to convey to Xi grave concerns over China's behavior, including around the Senkaku Islands, known as the Diaoyu Islands by China.

She was also expected to press for the early release of Japanese citizens detained in China and request that the safety of Japanese expatriates in China be ensured, the reports said.

- Carney talks on cards -

Xi is also set to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney -- their first meeting since the Liberal leader's election in April and the first formal visit between the leaders of Canada and China since 2017.

Relations between Beijing and Ottawa fell into a deep freeze in 2018 after the arrest of a senior Chinese telecom executive on a US warrant in Vancouver and Beijing's retaliatory detention of two Canadians on espionage charges.

And economic and political relations between China and Canada have strained further, even as both countries are targeted by US President Donald Trump's tariff blitz.

In July, Carney announced an additional 25 percent tariff on steel imports that contain steel melted and poured in China.

Beijing announced the following month it would start imposing a temporary customs duty of 75.8 percent on Canadian canola imports, after an investigation made a preliminary finding that dumping had occurred.

Canada is among the world's top producers of canola, an oilseed crop that is used to make cooking oil, animal meal and biodiesel fuel.

Speaking on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur this week, Carney said he and Xi would discuss their "commercial relationship, as well as the evolution of the global system".

U.Shaheen--SF-PST