China scraps meeting with Japanese foreign minister after G7 statement

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi won’t meet his Japanese counterpart this week after G7 and EU diplomats criticised Beijing’s reaction to Pelosi’s Taiwan trip

Beijing’s mission to the EU also hits back, calling the joint statement ‘heinous’

Reading Time:4 minutes

PLA military helicopters fly past Pingtan island in Fujian province - one of mainland China’s closest points to Taiwan - on Thursday. Photo: AFP

Published: 4:30pm, 4 Aug 2022Updated: 7:54pm, 4 Aug 2022

A meeting between the foreign ministers of China and Japan has been cancelled after the Group of 7 slammed Beijing for responding with military drills and trade restrictions to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had been expected to meet Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi in Cambodia on the sidelines of events hosted by Asean this week.

But Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the Chinese side was strongly displeased with the G7’s statement, adding that Japan, a member of the group, had no right to comment on the Taiwan issue given its historical record in the region. Taiwan became a Japanese colony in 1895 after the First Sino-Japanese War.

“Japan, together with the G7 countries and the European Union [are] unreasonably criticising China, confounding morality, and helping the US to violate Chinese sovereignty,” Hua said. “The Chinese people are very dissatisfied.”

Hua’s remarks echoed those of Beijing’s mission to the European Union. On Wednesday, a mission spokesman described the G7 and EU diplomats’ assertion that China was to blame for “unnecessary escalation” of regional tensions as “heinous”.

“If there are still people in the world who don’t understand [evil and shamelessness], please take a look at the joint statement by the G7 and European foreign ministers,” the spokesman said when asked about the group’s criticism of Beijing for “destabilising the region”.

China also lodged protests with diplomats from Britain, Germany, Italy, France and European Union on Thursday, British ambassador to Beijing Caroline Wilson wrote on her Twitter account.