China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, critical on Thursday to Japan over recent “negative trends on the Taiwan issue,” meeting in Beijing with former House Speaker Yohei Kono, who heads a Japanese delegation, the Chinese Foreign Ministry reported according to Kyodo News. .
Wang lashed out at the claim in some circles in Japan that any contingency regarding Taiwan would be an emergency for Japan, calling it “absurd and dangerous” and urging Tokyo to be “highly vigilant.”
Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was one of the proponents of that claim. Beijing regards the self-governing democratic island as a renegade province and opposes any official contact with it by foreign countries.
In a meeting with Kono, who is visiting Beijing with some 80 delegation members including many business representatives, Wang said China-Japan relations “are at a new critical juncture” as both countries commemorate this year the 45th anniversary of the conclusion of the bilateral Peace and Friendship Treaty of 1978.
Taiwan hosts multi-party delegation from Japan’s Diet
Wang urged Tokyo to oppose disengagement from the world’s second-largest economy and to “exclude outside interference,” referring to the United States, Japan’s security ally. Amid intensifying rivalry between the United States and China, Washington has called for reducing economic dependence on the Asian giant.
Wang lashed out at the claim in some circles in Japan that any contingency regarding Taiwan would be an emergency for Japan, calling it “absurd and dangerous” and urging Tokyo to be “highly vigilant.”
In response, Kono said that the business community in general does not support the politicization of economic issues and that disengagement does not benefit either party, according to the Chinese ministry.
The mission of the Japan Association for the Promotion of International Trade met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Wednesday. The group, which includes Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki among its members, is on his first visit to China since April 2019.
