China lodges protest with Japan over Taiwan foreign minister's visit
The protest was made by Liu Jinsong, head of the Chinese Foreign Ministry's Asian Affairs Department, in a meeting with Akira Yokochi, chief minister at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing, on Friday. Liu criticized Japan for allowing Lin to visit as it sends a "wrong signal," according to China's Foreign Ministry.
Keiji Furuya, a lawmaker from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party who heads a cross-party group promoting relations with Taiwan, posted a photo with Lin on social media on Friday.
While Japan switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1972, it maintains unofficial ties with Taipei. China views Taiwan as a renegade province to be reunified by force, if necessary.
Taiwan's Foreign Ministry described Lin's trip as "private."
Liu said the Taiwan issue is "at the core of China's interests," and urged Japan to immediately take measures to eliminate the adverse impact of the visit, according to the Chinese ministry.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Mainichi
11 minutes ago
- The Mainichi
Japan hails Cambodia-Thailand ceasefire
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan on Tuesday hailed a ceasefire agreement reached by Cambodia and Thailand after days of clashes in a disputed border area, saying good ties between the two countries are "extremely important" for regional stability and development. "We welcome the immediate, unconditional ceasefire agreement between Cambodia and Thailand," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told a press conference. "We will work with other nations to ask for efforts on the part of Cambodia and Thailand to ease tensions, including through the steady implementation of the ceasefire agreement," the top Japanese government spokesman added. The ceasefire came after a meeting in Malaysia on Monday between Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and Thailand's acting prime minister, Phumtham Wechayachai. U.S. President Donald Trump had put pressure on both nations to agree to a ceasefire, threatening not to reach tariff deals with them without one.
Japan Times
20 minutes ago
- Japan Times
Taiwan's Lai calls off trip with U.S. transit as Trump seeks Xi summit
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te has called off an overseas trip planned for next week after the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump failed to greenlight his stopover in the U.S. amid concerns it could derail trade talks with China. Taiwan's leader isn't planning any overseas travel in the near future, given the need for typhoon recovery work in southern Taiwan and tariff negotiations with the U.S., the Presidential Office in Taipei said in a statement late Monday. Lai had intended to stop in New York on Aug. 4 and then Dallas 10 days later as part of a trip to diplomatic allies Paraguay, Guatemala and Belize. Planning for that trip was thrown into flux late last week when Taiwanese officials couldn't get their U.S. counterparts to give the go-ahead, according to people familiar with the matter. The U.S. had mounting concerns Lai's visit could disrupt trade negotiations with China and a potential summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the people said. The hesitation over Lai's trip unnerved some officials in the U.S., as well as in Taipei, who fear Trump may concede too much to China as he seeks a meeting with Xi, according to the people. Trump's team has been reportedly reaching out to CEOs to join him on a possible trip to Beijing this year. While Lai's trip was never formally announced, officials in Paraguay and Guatemala had been expecting him to arrive next month, but no longer do so, according to people familiar with the preparations for his visit. Trump officials denied Lai permission to transit through New York after China raised objections with Washington about the visit, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the decision. It was unclear whether he was also blocked from stopping over in Dallas, the newspaper added. The rebuke will fan concerns that Washington's position on the self-ruled democracy, which Beijing considers a part of its territory, is becoming a trade war bargaining chip. In an abrupt policy reversal, Trump already put on the negotiating table some tech curbs imposed on China over national security concerns. Lai poses for photos with Taiwanese National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (second from left), Taiwanese Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (fourth from left), and army officers in front of a U.S.-made M1A2T Abrams tank during a live-fire shooting session for Taiwan's first batch of the advanced tank on July 10. | AFP-JIJI "Trump's decision to deny permission for President Lai to visit New York sends a dangerous signal: that the United States can be bullied by Beijing into silence on Taiwan,' said former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose 2022 visit to Taipei sparked uproar. "This is a victory for Xi,' she wrote on social media platform X. "Let us hope it is not indicative of a dangerous change in U.S. policy.' The White House didn't reply to a request for comment. A State Department official said transits by high-level Taiwanese officials, including presidents, were fully consistent with longstanding U.S. policy and practice, which hasn't changed. The U.S. could yet suggest an alternative time frame and layover locations. Last year, the Taiwanese president pushed back a planned transit through Hawaii and Guam by several months following a request from the administration of then-President Joe Biden to wait until after the U.S. election, according to a person familiar with the matter. Lai is planning to go ahead with his trip later this year, according to one person familiar with the plans. The Taiwanese president's planned visit came at a delicate diplomatic moment. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng on Monday met in Stockholm for talks aimed at advancing a trade deal with ramifications for global markets. An extension of a tariff truce reached between both sides is expected and would help pave the way for a Trump-Xi meeting. China, which has branded Lai a "separatist' and "parasite,' views Taiwan as the most sensitive issue in relations with other countries. It has increasingly opposed U.S. interactions with Taiwanese leaders, often by staging large-scale military exercises surrounding the island, following Pelosi's trip to Taipei. Linking Taiwan to trade with China "sends a dangerous message to Beijing,' said Laura Rosenberger, a former U.S. diplomat who also chaired the American Institute in Taiwan until this year. "At a time when Beijing is engaging in increasingly coercive behavior toward Taipei, the U.S. needs to be sending a clear message of commitment to longstanding precedents, not allowing Beijing to once again move the goalposts,' she added. Supporters of Taiwan's main opposition party, Kuomintang, participate in a rally against a recall election in front of the Presidential Office in Taipei on Friday. | AFP-JIJI Lai, who won last year's presidential election with the lowest winning percentage since 2000, now risks looking weak at home and abroad. Last weekend, a failed attempt to unseat lawmakers handed the opposition more ammunition for its agenda, which includes forging closer ties with Beijing. Adding to the uncertainty, Taiwan's trade officials are currently in Washington for talks aimed at clinching a deal to avert a threatened 32% tariff. All of Taiwan's sitting presidents since the 1990s have traveled to the U.S. on stopovers en route to other destinations. While most visits passed without triggering heightened tensions, a trip in 1995 by then-leader Lee Teng-hui to speak at Cornell University sparked what's referred to as the Third Strait Crisis, with China firing missiles into waters near the main island of Taiwan. Stopover requests, on occasion, have been used as a way for U.S. leaders to signal displeasure with Taiwan's policy. The most prominent example of that came in 2006, when then-U.S. President George W. Bush scuttled then-Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian's request to transit to Paraguay via either New York or San Francisco. That snub was taken as a sign his unofficial relationship with Washington had suffered a serious blow, after Chen upset the Bush administration with a series of pro-independence policies that risked provoking China. Lai's New York and Dallas stops would have been his first to continental U.S. soil since he became president last year and Trump took power in January. His transits in Hawaii and Guam last December were followed by what Taipei described as China's largest naval deployment in years along the first island chain, which also includes Japan and the Philippines.
41 minutes ago
Japan Foreign Ministry to Set Up Economic Security Division
Tokyo, July 29 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that it will implement a large-scale organizational reform Friday, including the establishment of an economic security division under the Economic Affairs Bureau. Through the new division, the ministry aims to better respond to issues related to economic security, such as the strengthening of supply chains for key minerals amid heightening U.S.-China tensions. Currently, the economic security policy office under the Foreign Policy Bureau's National Security Policy Division is in charge of economic security-related affairs. At the Economic Affairs Bureau, a general affairs division, which will take charge of comprehensive coordination concerning economic diplomacy, and an economic diplomacy strategy division, tasked with handling emerging issues, such as those linked to digital technologies and artificial intelligence, will also be established. The Western Europe Division and the Central and South Eastern Europe Division at the European Affairs Bureau will be reorganized into the first Europe division and the second Europe division. The second Europe division will have an office handling policies associated with Ukraine, Poland, the three Baltic states and three other nations so that issues pertaining to Russia's invasion of Ukraine are dealt with intensively. [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
