Foreign Minister Wang Yi has also been speaking about the attendence of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the APEC leaders meeting in Beijing. Wang Yi says he'll be welcomed as a "guest" but he insisted that a number of obstacles still stand in the way of easing tension between the two countries.

"China is the host of this year's APEC," Wang said. "There's a tradition in China that everybody who comes to our house is a guest. We will dutifully play host to everyone who will be coming.

"As for the obstacles that stand in the way of China-Japan relations, they are based on facts, facts that are impossible to avoid. We hope Japanese leaders can properly face up to the existence of these issues and display their sincerity in wanting to solve those problems."

There's been no official high-level contact between China and Japan since September 2012, when the Japanese government controversially purchased the Diaoyu Islands from a private owner, igniting a territorial row. Observers are scrutinising the APEC preparations very carefully, looking for signs of a potential meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Abe.

President Xi has already met former Japanese Prime Minister and current chairman of the Boao Forum, Yasuo Fukuda, during preparations for the next Boao forum for Asia in 2015.