Taiwan and Japan are playing a dangerous game

There have been a number of such moves this year, the latest being the highest-level visit to Taiwan by a Japanese official since diplomatic recognition of China was switched from Taipei to Beijing in 1972. Deputy minister of internal affairs and communications Jiro Akama was in the island’s capital for a two-day tourism fair organised by the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association, which represents Japanese interests on the island. The association changed its name from the Interchange Association at the start of the year, a decision denounced by the foreign ministry in Beijing as an attempt to create “two Chinas or one China, one Taiwan”. Taipei has since changed the name of its office in Japan from the Association of East Asian Relations to the Association of Taiwan-Japan Relations.