As fears grow over a simmering island dispute between China and Japan, scholars from both nations are hoping to lower the temperature with expansive talks in Washington in search of common ground.
The academics acknowledged that Tokyo and Beijing have major differences over the territories in the East China Sea but they saw one fundamental point in common -- neither side wanted the conflict to escalate into war.
A pair of US-based scholars from the two countries brought together experts -- four from China, three from Japan -- all day Sunday to hear out views on the islands known as the Senkakus in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese.
The Chinese co-convener, Zheng Wang, found a "huge perception gap" between the two sides and said that rising nationalism in Asia's two largest economies made it difficult for leaders to take any action that could be seen as weak.
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