BEIJING, China — China's top diplomat Wang Yi told his Japanese counterpart that he hoped Tokyo would handle the fatal stabbing of a schoolboy in Shenzhen "calmly and rationally", China's foreign ministry said Tuesday.
After the attack last week in the southern Chinese city, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida demanded an explanation and urged Beijing to ensure the safety of Japanese citizens.
The boy, reportedly 10 years old, was stabbed on his way to a Japanese school. Beijing's foreign ministry said that one of his parents was Japanese and the other Chinese.
Wang met Japan's Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa during a visit to New York. He told her that China would investigate and handle the case "in accordance with the law".
"Japan should view this calmly and rationally and avoid politicising or escalating the issue," Wang said, according to the Chinese foreign ministry.
Beijing "will as always safeguard the safety of all foreign citizens in China", he added.
While it remains unclear if the attack was politically motivated, it happened on September 18 -- the anniversary of the 1931 "Mukden incident" or "Manchurian incident", which is known in China as a day of national humiliation.
On that day, an explosion on a railway was used by Japanese soldiers as a pretext to occupy the city of Mukden, now called Shenyang, and invade the wider region.
Japan's foreign ministry said that Kamikawa "strongly demanded" that China clarify relevant facts, including the motives, and strictly punish the perpetrator.
In particular, Kamikawa demanded that China act against "malicious and anti-Japanese posts on social media, including those related to Japanese schools, that have no basis in fact".
"Minister Kamikawa then requested that the two countries as neighbours work earnestly to improve the situation by squarely facing issues that serve as obstacles to the bilateral exchange," Japan's ministry said.
Before departing for New York for the United Nations General Assembly, Kamikawa said Japan will spend 43 million yen ($300,000) to ramp up security at Japanese schools in China.
Last week, Beijing expressed "regret and sadness" for what it called an isolated incident that "could happen in any country".
Relations between the countries have worsened as China grows more assertive in territorial disputes in the region, and as Japan boosts security ties with the United States and its allies.
But Beijing announced last week it would "gradually resume" importing seafood from Japan after imposing a ban in 2023 over the release of water from the Fukushima nuclear plant.