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TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen said on Sunday there were no plans for her phone conversation with new Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga after a Japanese envoy told Tsai that Suga might be open to it, which raised concern in Beijing.
Taiwan, claimed by China as its own territory, has close cultural and historical ties to Japan, although Japan, like most countries, recognizes China’s government in Beijing, not Taiwan’s.
Meeting Tsai in Taipei on Friday, former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, who was visiting for a memorial service for the late President Lee Teng-hui, said Suga told him that “if the opportunity exists, look forward to speaking on the phone or By other means”.
China’s Foreign Ministry said late Saturday that Japan had told them such a thing “will never happen” after Beijing asked Tokyo for clarification.
Tsai told reporters that she did not discuss this with Mori. “We also don’t have this plan at this time to have a phone conversation,” he said.
A spokesman for the Japanese Foreign Ministry echoed Tsai’s comments, saying that “there is no plan for a phone call” between the two leaders.
Japan cut diplomatic relations with Taiwan in favor of China in 1972. Taiwan was a Japanese colony between 1895 and 1945.
Unlike China or South Korea, many Taiwanese have a broadly positive view of Japan, saying that Japan’s government brought progress to what was an undeveloped, primarily agricultural island.
Separately on Sunday, Tsai said recent approaches to Taiwan by Chinese planes show that Beijing is a threat to the entire region.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by Sam Nussey in the Tokyo and Beijing newsroom; Editing by William Mallard)
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