Japan’s Cabinet Secretary General Matsuno expressed regret over Beijing’s cancellation of foreign ministers’ meeting

TOKYO, August 5 – RIA Novosti. Japan’s government secretary general, Hirokazu Matsuno, said at a news conference in Tokyo that Beijing’s decision to cancel the Japan-China foreign ministers meeting was regrettable.

“The meeting of the foreign ministers of Japan and China on the sidelines of ASEAN was in the final stages of coordination, but yesterday the Chinese side announced that it did not want to hold this meeting and suggested the explanation of the G7 countries (about Taiwan). Matsuno stated that such actions of the Chinese side are regrettable, ” In a tense situation, the exchange of views is even more important. Our country is always open to dialogue with China,” he said.

The worsening of the situation in Taiwan is linked to the visit of Nancy Pelosi, spokesperson for the US House of Representatives. The visit was the US House of Representatives’ first visit to Taiwan since 1997, making him the most senior US official to visit the island in 25 years. The US administration, warned by the Chinese leader of the “burning risks of playing with fire”, assured Beijing of its adherence to the “one China” policy, but walked away, saying the speaker had made his own decisions.

As a result, the visit was the impetus for a new wave of tension in the Taiwan Strait. Beijing on Thursday launched a large-scale live fire exercise by the Chinese military in six areas around Taiwan. The exercises will continue until 12:00 on Sunday. On Thursday, 5 of 11 rockets fell into Japan’s exclusive economic zone, a protest was held.

In addition, Beijing has sanctioned two Taiwanese funds, suspended exports of natural sand to the island and imports of citrus and some fish products from Taiwan, and the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that China plans to take decisive and drastic measures. He made it clear that all the negative consequences of the visit, which Beijing has been opposing for months, are yet to come and that Washington and Taipei will take responsibility for them.

Official relations between the central government of the People’s Republic of China and the island province were interrupted in 1949 after Kuomintang forces led by Chiang Kai-shek, defeated in a civil war with the Chinese Communist Party, moved to Taiwan. Trade and informal relations between the island and mainland China resumed in the late 1980s. Since the early 1990s, the parties began to establish contacts through non-governmental organizations – the Beijing Association for the Development of Relations along the Taiwan Strait and the Taipei Cross-Strait Exchange Foundation.