Japan denies report that Trump told PM Takaichi not to provoke China on Taiwan
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Japan’s top government spokesman Minoru Kihara on Nov 27 denied that US President Donald Trump had advised Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to not provoke Beijing.
PHOTO: AFP
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TOKYO – Japan denied on Nov 27 a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report that said US President Donald Trump had advised Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi not to provoke China over Taiwan’s sovereignty
The row between Asia’s two biggest economies began after Ms Takaichi suggested in November that Tokyo could intervene militarily in any attack on self-ruled Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory.
According to Beijing’s Foreign Ministry, Chinese leader Xi Jinping pressed the issue in a phone call with Mr Trump on Nov 24, saying Taiwan’s return was an “integral part of the post-war international order”.
The WSJ reported on Nov 27 that, shortly after that discussion, “Trump set up a call with Takaichi and advised her not to provoke Beijing on the question of the island’s sovereignty”.
It cited unidentified Japanese officials and an American briefed on the call.
But Japan’s top government spokesman Minoru Kihara denied the WSJ account.
“The article has a passage that says, on the question of Taiwan’s sovereignty, Trump advised her not to provoke the Chinese government. There is no such fact,” he told a regular media briefing, without elaborating.
Ms Takaichi said in her reporting of the call with Mr Trump that they discussed the US leader’s conversation with Mr Xi, as well as bilateral relations.
“President Trump said we are very close friends, and he offered that I should feel free to call him any time,” she said.
But, according to the WSJ, “the Japanese officials said the message was worrying”.
“The President didn’t want friction over Taiwan to endanger a detente reached last month with Xi, which included a promise to buy more agricultural products from American farmers hit hard by the trade war,” it said.
‘Seriously erroneous’
Beijing, which has threatened to use force to take control of the self-ruled island, responded furiously to Ms Takaichi’s initial remarks in Parliament on Nov 7.
It summoned Tokyo’s ambassador and advised Chinese citizens against travelling to Japan.
The Chinese Embassy in Japan warned people to be careful again on Nov 26
Japan’s Foreign Ministry denied any increase in crime, citing figures from the National Police Agency in response that showed the number of murders from January to October had halved compared with the same period in 2024.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun reiterated on Nov 27 a call for Japan to officially retract Ms Takaichi’s comments.
“The Japanese side’s attempt to downplay, dodge and cover up Prime Minister Takaichi’s seriously erroneous remarks by not raising them again is self-deception,” he told a regular news briefing. “China will never accept this.” AFP
