Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said that Japan must not "obscure" its stance on the Taiwan issue, demanding that Tokyo respect the principle that Beijing is the sole legitimate government of China.
The remarks, which came in a video message at a symposium held in Tokyo on Monday, came as tensions have grown over Taiwan following a trip in early August by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the third-highest-ranking U.S. official, to the self-ruled democratic island. China views Taiwan as a breakaway province to be unified with the mainland, by force if necessary.
"Important matters of the principles related to the basis of the China-Japan relationship, such as history and Taiwan, must not be obscured, not even slightly," Wang said in the video message at the event ahead of the 50th anniversary later this month of the two countries' normalization of ties.