Japan denies report Trump told PM Takaichi not to provoke China on Taiwan

Takaichi’s proposition earlier this period that Tokyo could intervene militarily if Taiwan is attacked has enraged Beijing.

Japan has denied a study that said United States President Donald Trump had advised Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi not to provoke China implicit Taiwan’s sovereignty.

In a quality briefing connected Thursday, Japan’s apical authorities spokesperson Minoru Kihara said “there is nary specified fact” astir an nonfiction published successful The Wall Street Journal claiming that Trump had made specified a remark to the Japanese leader.

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He declined to remark further connected the details of the “diplomatic exchange”.

The row betwixt Asia’s 2 biggest economies began aft Takaichi had suggested earlier this period that Tokyo could intervene militarily successful immoderate onslaught connected self-ruled Taiwan, which China claims arsenic portion of its territory.

Takaichi’s remark ignited choler successful Beijing.

After the incident, Beijing’s Foreign Ministry said that Chinese person Xi Jinping pressed the contented successful a telephone telephone with Trump connected Monday, saying Taiwan’s instrumentality was an “integral portion of the post-war planetary order”.

The WSJ reported connected Thursday that, soon aft that telephone telephone betwixt the US and Chinese leaders, “Trump acceptable up a telephone with Takaichi and advised her not to provoke Beijing connected the question of the island’s sovereignty”. The study quoted unidentified Japanese officials and an American briefed connected the call.

Takaichi said successful her reporting of the telephone with Trump that they discussed the US president’s speech with Xi, arsenic good arsenic bilateral relations.

“President Trump said we are precise adjacent friends, and helium offered that I should consciousness escaped to telephone him anytime,” she said.

Beijing, which has threatened to usage unit to instrumentality power of the self-ruled island, besides took different punitive steps to register its choler implicit Takaichi’s archetypal remarks successful parliament connected November 7.

It summoned Tokyo’s ambassador and advised Chinese citizens against travelling to Japan.

As the diplomatic enactment escalated, the Chinese embassy successful Tokyo issued a caller informing to its citizens connected Wednesday, saying determination had been a surge successful transgression successful Japan, and that Chinese citizens had reported “being insulted, beaten and injured for nary reason”.

Japan’s Foreign Ministry denied immoderate summation successful crime, citing figures from the National Police Agency successful effect that showed the fig of murders from January to October had halved compared with the aforesaid play successful 2024.

Last week, Japanese media reported that China volition again ban each imports of Japanese seafood arsenic the diplomatic quality betwixt the 2 countries escalated.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun reiterated connected Thursday a telephone for Japan to officially retract Takaichi’s comments.

“The Japanese side’s effort to downplay, dodge, and screen up Prime Minister Takaichi’s earnestly erroneous remarks by not raising them again is self-deception,” Guo told a regular quality briefing.

“China volition ne'er judge this.”

Meanwhile, Trump’s nationalist soundlessness connected Japan’s escalating quality with China has further frayed nerves successful Tokyo.

Some officials interest that Trump whitethorn beryllium prepared to soften enactment for Taiwan successful pursuit of a commercialized accord with China, a determination they fearfulness volition embolden Beijing and origin struggle successful an progressively militarised East Asia.

“For Trump, what matters astir is US-China relations,” said Kazuhiro Maejima, a prof of US authorities astatine Sophia University.

“Japan has ever been treated arsenic a instrumentality oregon a paper to negociate that relationship,” Maejima told Reuters quality agency.

Washington’s envoy to Tokyo has said the US supports Japan successful the look of China’s “coercion”, but 2 elder ruling enactment lawmakers said they had hoped for much full-throated enactment from their apical information state successful Washington, DC.