Beijing rejects G20 Japan meeting with Premier Li amid deepening Taiwan row

People’s Daily has urged Asian nations to stay “on high alert” for Japan’s potentially “dangerous” strategic tilt in an editorial published amid a trip to Beijing by a senior Japanese diplomat over the escalating bilateral diplomatic row on Taiwan.

The commentary in the Communist Party mouthpiece on Monday condemned Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s recent remarks on potentially intervening in a Taiwan conflict, calling them “tantamount to invoking the ghost of militarism”, a reference to the ideology which fuelled imperial Japan’s aggressive expansion from the late 19th century to the end of World War II.

The warning came as a senior official in Japan’s foreign ministry left for China on Monday in a bid to calm the escalating spat.

Masaaki Kanai, head of the ministry’s Asian and Oceanian affairs, will meet with officials, including his Chinese counterpart Liu Jinsong.

Kanai was expected to explain that Takaichi’s remarks over a Taiwan emergency did not deviate from Japan’s position regarding the island, according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK.

He could also call for Beijing to try to keep bilateral differences from affecting people-to-people exchanges, according to the account.

  

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