China Sends U.N. Chief Letter over Japan PM’s Taiwan Remarks

New York, Nov. 21 (Jiji Press)–Fu Cong, China’s ambassador to the United Nations, has sent U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres a letter over Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s recent remarks on a possible Taiwan contingency, China’s permanent mission to the world body said Friday. The letter said that the Japanese leader should retract the “erroneous remarks.” According to a statement by the mission, the letter said Takaichi’s remarks “constitute a grave violation of international law and the basic norms governing international relations” and “represent an open provocation to the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people and to the people of other Asian countries that once suffered from Japanese aggression.” The letter will be distributed to all U.N. member states “as an official document of the (U.N.) General Assembly,” the mission said. On Tuesday, Fu suggested at a General Assembly meeting that Japan is “in no position whatsoever to request to be a permanent member of the (U.N.) Security Council.” Takaichi, who took office a month ago, said at a parliamentary meeting Nov. 7 that a potential Taiwan contingency could constitute a so-called survival-threatening situation for Japan, allowing the nation to exercise its right to collective self-defense. China, which regards Taiwan as a renegade province, aims to unite the self-governing island with its mainland. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]