ANKARA
Top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi criticized Tokyo for recent “negative trends” on the Taiwan issue during a meeting with visiting Japanese delegation on Thursday, calling it “absurd and dangerous.”
Wang, who served as foreign minister for nearly a decade before being appointed director of the Communist Party’s Central Committee Foreign Affairs Commission in January this year, met with former House of Representatives Speaker Yohei Kono, who led a Japanese delegation visiting Beijing, Tokyo-based Kyodo News reported.
Without naming the US, Wang urged Japan to oppose efforts to decouple from the world’s second-largest economy and interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.
Kono, for his part, told Wang that the Japanese business community does not support politicizing economic issues and that decoupling is not in the interests of any party.
On Wednesday, Kono and his 80-member delegation met also with Chinese Premier Li Qiang.
Premier Li expressed concern about Japan’s export controls on semiconductor-related equipment, saying they could “disrupt” the global economy.
“China’s development will benefit countries, including Japan, and not become a risk,” Li asserted.
On Monday, Wang also called on Japan and South Korea to “resist resurgence of Cold War mentality,” urging the two East Asian neighbors to maintain cooperation and avoid being swayed by outside influences.
“China, Japan, South Korea, and all Asian countries should practice open regionalism, promote inclusive Asian values, develop a sense of strategic independence, ensure regional unity and stability, resist the resurgence of the Cold War mentality, and avoid the imposition of hegemony,” Wang said at a trilateral forum in China’s eastern port city of Qingdao.
During his conversation with the guests attending the forum, Wang said: “Europeans and Americans can’t distinguish between Chinese, Japanese, and South Koreans.”
“No matter how yellow our hair is dyed or how sharp we change our nose, we can’t become Westerners. We should know where our roots are,” Wang told the main group of guests.
“If this trend is allowed to develop, it will not only seriously interfere with the smooth progress of cooperation between the three countries, but will continue to increase tension and conflict in the regional situation,” he warned.
Japan and South Korea have developed close relations with the US, as Washington competes with Beijing for influence in East Asia.
