Japan denies report Trump told PM not to provoke China on Taiwan

Japan denied on Thursday a Wall Street Journal report that said US President Donald Trump had advised Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi not to provoke China over Taiwan’s sovereignty.

The row between Asia’s two biggest economies began after Takaichi suggested this month 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 Trump on Monday, saying Taiwan’s return was an “integral part of the post-war international order”.

The WSJ reported on Thursday 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.

However, Japan’s top government spokesman Minoru Kihara denied the Journal’s 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,” Kihara told a regular media briefing, without elaborating.

Takaichi said in her reporting of the call with Trump that they discussed the US president’s conversation with 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 anytime,” 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 includes 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 Takaichi’s initial remarks in parliament on November 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 Wednesday, saying there had been a surge in crime and that Chinese citizens had reported “being insulted, beaten and injured for no reason”.

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 to the same period in 2024.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun reiterated on Thursday a call for Japan to officially retract 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,” Guo told a regular news briefing.

“China will never accept this.”

AFP

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