CCTV9英语新闻：中国欢迎安倍来北京（在线收听）

Full coverage: APEC China 2014 Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will be welcomed as a guest at the APEC leaders meeting in Beijing. But Yi 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 has 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 scrutinizing the APEC preparations, looking for signs of a potential meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Abe.

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.