China tells Japan it will not tolerate violations of sovereignty

BEIJING, Sept 25 (Reuters) - China will not tolerate any violations of its sovereignty, Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun told his Japanese counterpart on Tuesday as the two met in a bid to ease tensions over a territorial dispute.

"China will never tolerate any unilateral actions by Japan that harm Chinese territorial sovereignty," Zhang told Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Chikao Kawai in Beijing, according to a statement posted on the Chinese Foreign Ministry's website.

"Japan must banish illusions, undertake searching reflection and use concrete actions to amend its errors, returning to the consensus and understandings reached between our two countries' leaders," Zhang said.

Zhang called the Japanese government's purchase of the islands "a grave trampling on historical facts and international jurisprudence".

Sino-Japanese relations deteriorated sharply this month after Japan bought a group of uninhabited East China Sea islands, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, from their private owner, sparking anti-Japanese protests across China.