(Adnkronos) – Sparks between China and Japan. A diplomatic dispute opens after the trilateral with South Korea at the weekend in Tokyo. Japan on Saturday accused Beijing of providing an “inaccurate” presentation of the positions, after the meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, claiming that “respect” had been shown by Tokyo for the Dragon’s point of view. No comment in this regard, however, they say from Japan, from where they asked Beijing to immediately remove anything “inaccurate” in its report. Tokyo did not disclose what the response was.
But those ‘incriminating’ sentences are still available on the website of the Chinese Foreign Ministry. And they affirm that “the Japanese side fully recognizes the important meaning of the four political documents between Japan and China, respects the positions elaborated by the Chinese side and wants to strengthen exchanges and cooperation” between the two countries to “carry forward the development of bilateral relations” and for “greater benefits for the populations of the two countries”. What positions Japan would “respect” was not clarified. But the statement stresses that Japan “must respect the principles of the four documents” and “seriously fulfill important political commitments on historical issues and on the Taiwan issue”. With the hope that Tokyo “will make a wise choice and send the right signal to the world with responsible behavior towards history”.
In the background, but not too much, of the tensions there is always the question of Taiwan, which China considers a “rebel province” to be “reunified”. Without excluding the use of force. This morning, the spokesman for Chinese diplomacy, pressed by journalists, spoke of Wang’s visit to Tokyo as a “success”, referring to the trilateral with South Korea, reiterated the Chinese position on Taiwan, urged Japan to “respect its commitments and to handle the Taiwan issue with the utmost prudence”.
Taiwan was formally under Japanese control from 1895 to 1945, which maintains close ties with the island and is opposed to any change in the status quo in the Taiwan Strait. For a few days now, the former head of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces, Shigeru Iwasaki, has been an adviser to the Taipei government. “In relations between countries, it is important to respect each other’s positions,” the spokesman for the Beijing Foreign Ministry replied to reporters who continued to ask him what was happening with Japan. An issue that appears to be still open after the trilateral at the level of foreign ministers between China, South Korea and Japan. A meeting presented as an opportunity to improve difficult relations and of which for now remains a new dispute between China and Japan, a US ally that however has in the People’s Republic its main trading partner.
