China and Japan suspend meeting in the margins of ASEAN summit over G7 remarks on Taiwan

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying confirmed Thursday that the planned meeting between Chinese and Japanese Foreign Ministers Wang Yi and Yoshimasa Hayashi, respectively, has been called off due to comments made by G7 ministers on the situation in Taiwan.

The Chinese side has condemned the joint statement by the G7 foreign ministers, who called on Wednesday to “preserve peace and stability” in the Taiwan Strait following the visit to Taipei by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and showed concern over what they consider “threatening words” by China.

Hua said that Japan “has no right to make such irresponsible comments on the Taiwanese issue” and said that the meeting – scheduled to take place in the framework of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Cambodia – is therefore suspended, according to information from the Chinese television channel CGTN.

The foreign ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States have asserted that there is no justification for using (Pelosi’s) visit as “a pretext for aggressive military activity in the Taiwan Strait” and defended that it is “normal and routine” for foreign delegations to visit other countries on overseas trips.