Tokyo has protested and sought the partial removal of a statement made by China describing a discussion held between Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅), a Japanese government spokesperson said.
Wang was in Japan over the weekend for economic talks, during which he paid a courtesy visit to Ishiba.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed that Ishiba had told Wang that “Japan respects the positions elaborated by the Chinese side” — a statement that Ishiba had never made, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The Chinese statement does not specify the positions that Ishiba allegedly respects, but notes that Wang said Japan should “earnestly fulfill important political commitments on historical issues and the Taiwan question” among other requests, such as adhering to four documents that underpin Japan-China diplomacy and safeguarding the legal foundation of their relationship.
Japan’s protests come amid increased tensions in the region as nations brace for the impact of additional tariffs from US President Donald Trump’s administration, and likely further conflicts between the US and China.
Japan is often caught between its security alliance with the US and China being its largest trading partner.
How Taiwan should be treated has continued to be a key issue of contention between Japan and China.
“We have lodged a protest and requested the immediate removal of the wording that is not factually accurate,” Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said at a news conference yesterday.
“It is unfortunate that China released a statement that was not factual,” he said.
He declined to comment on how China had responded to the complaint.
Hayashi made the comments days after news of Taiwan naming Shigeru Iwasaki, former chief of staff of the joint staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, as a Cabinet consultant renewed focus on Japan’s and China’s differing positions on Taiwan.
Japan has close ties with Taiwan and adamantly opposes changes to the “status quo” concerning the self-governing nation, but China has ambitions to bring Taiwan under its control and has not ruled out the possibility of using force to do so.
Wang on Saturday met with Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Takeshi Iwaya for bilateral talks concerning issues of contention between the two Asian giants.
Iwaya urged the peaceful resolution of relations between Taiwan and China, and reiterated Japan’s opposition to any attempts to change the “status quo” by coercion during the talks with Wang, according to a statement released by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, was sacked yesterday, days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he no longer trusts him, and fallout from a report on the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. “The Government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to end ISA Director Ronen Bar’s term of office,” a statement said. He is to leave his post when his successor is appointed by April 10 at the latest, the statement said. Netanyahu on Sunday cited an “ongoing lack of trust” as the reason for moving to dismiss Bar, who joined the agency in 1993. Bar, meant to
Indonesia’s parliament yesterday amended a law to allow members of the military to hold more government roles, despite criticisms that it would expand the armed forces’ role in civilian affairs. The revision to the armed forces law, pushed mainly by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s coalition, was aimed at expanding the military’s role beyond defense in a country long influenced by its armed forces. The amendment has sparked fears of a return to the era of former Indonesian president Suharto, who ex-general Prabowo once served and who used military figures to crack down on dissent. “Now it’s the time for us to ask the
The central Dutch city of Utrecht has installed a “fish doorbell” on a river lock that lets viewers of an online livestream alert authorities to fish being held up as they make their springtime migration to shallow spawning grounds. The idea is simple: An underwater camera at Utrecht’s Weerdsluis lock sends live footage to a Web site. When somebody watching the site sees a fish, they can click a button that sends a screenshot to organizers. When they see enough fish, they alert a water worker who opens the lock to let the fish swim through. Now in its fifth year, the
‘INCREDIBLY TROUBLESOME’: Hours after a judge questioned the legality of invoking a wartime power to deport immigrants, the president denied signing the proclamation The US on Friday said it was terminating the legal status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants, giving them weeks to leave the country. US President Donald Trump has pledged to carry out the largest deportation campaign in US history and curb immigration, mainly from Latin American nations. The order affects about 532,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who came to the US under a scheme launched in October 2022 by Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, and expanded in January the following year. They would lose their legal protection 30 days after the US Department of Homeland Security’s order is published in the Federal
RSS