China called on new Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Wednesday to meet Beijing "halfway" to try and improve relations that have been hurt by a debilitating territorial dispute.
"We hope the new Japanese administration will meet the Chinese side halfway and make concrete efforts to overcome difficulties in bilateral relations," foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters.
She added such efforts were needed "so as to push bilateral relations back on to the normal track of development".
Hua was speaking after Abe was selected Wednesday as Japan's prime minister by the lower house of parliament following victory by his Liberal Democratic Party in elections earlier this month.
"We are ready to work with the Japanese side to push forward the steady and sound development of bilateral relations," Hua said.
China and Japan are at odds over small islands in the East China Sea that both claim, though Japan controls. China calls them the Diaoyu Islands, while Japan refers to them as the Senkaku Islands.
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