Tokyo-Beijing Forum Postponed Following PM Takaichi’s Taiwan Remark

Tokyo, Nov. 17 (Jiji Press)–The Tokyo-Beijing Forum has been put off in the fallout from Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s controversial remark on a contingency over Taiwan, the Genron NPO said Monday. The postponement was requested in a letter from the China International Communications Group, with which the Japanese nonprofit think tank has organized the annual event since 2005. This year’s forum of Japanese and Chinese intellectuals was scheduled to be held in Beijing for three days from Saturday. In the letter, the Chinese co-organizer said Takaichi made what the group called a provocative statement and saber-rattling and did not retract them despite the Chinese government’s stern protest. It also argued that her remark undermined the atmosphere for normal exchanges between the two countries. “We fully feel that China’s stance has grown increasingly severe,” Genron NPO head Yasushi Kudo told a press conference in Tokyo, noting that the forum had never been canceled even during periods of strained bilateral ties. In a related development, the results of a joint opinion poll conducted by the Genron NPO in Japan and by the CICG in China have yet to be announced although they were originally set to be released on Nov. 4. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]