China has postponed a senior legislator's visit to Japan amid the renewed territorial dispute sparked by ship collisions last week off the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, Japanese officials said Tuesday.
"It is very regrettable" that Li Jianguo, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, will not visit Wednesday as planned, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku said.
The Chinese Embassy told the secretariat of the Lower House on Monday that Li's five-day visit under a regular exchange program for parliamentarians will be put off, citing "various reasons" and without elaborating, secretariat officials said.