The Japanese Government denied this Thursday that US President Donald Trump asked his Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, for restraint in her comments on Taiwan to “not provoke” Chinaas pointed out in an article published in the newspaper The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
“That President Trump has asked Takaichi not to provoke the Government of China over the sovereignty of Taiwan does not fit the facts,” said Japanese government spokesman Minoru Kihara, in an ambiguous denial, hours after refusing to comment on the statements made the day before by the American newspaper.
Kihara pointed out that the Japanese Executive has sent a formal complaint to the American publication to review the article and remove the part that it considers incorrect.
According to the WSJ article, published this Thursday morning in Japanese time, during the telephone conversation that Trump and Takaichi had last Tuesday, the American president would have recommended that the Japanese woman “not provoke” Beijing with its messages about Taiwanin the midst of diplomatic tension between neighboring countries due to some comments by the Japanese woman about the island.
The media, which cites Japanese and American sources, assured that the message was “subtle” and that Trump did not ask Takaichi to retract his wordsas China demands.
“In the telephone conversation the other day, many topics were discussed, such as the strengthening of the relationship between Japan and the United States and the situation and problems in the Indo-Pacific (…). This is what I explained yesterday and I avoid giving more details since it is a diplomatic matter,” Kihara had said previously this morning.
The Japanese news agency Kyodo, in the note in which it echoed this matter, reported, citing a government source, that the leaders discussed ways to “cooperate” to reduce tension, but did not give more details.
Tokyo and China are experiencing a moment of renewed tension after the Japanese prime minister made comments in the national parliament earlier this month in which she indicated that an attack on Taiwan or a conflict in its Strait would justify an intervention by the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (Army).
The diplomatic dispute has been growing progressively and jumped to other spheres such as the economic and social, after the Chinese authorities advised against traveling to Japan, reimposed their ban on Japanese seafood or interrupted personal and government exchanges with Tokyo.