Taiwan question seen as key to China-Japan ties

Official calls on Tokyo to keep an eye on nations' fundamental, long-term interests

Beijing has underscored that the Taiwan question is the key to relations between China and Japan at the latest high-level dialogue of their policymakers, because it is the basis of fundamental trust and credibility in the bilateral relationship.

Observers noted that Japan fueled tension in its already frayed ties with China when it joined the recent statement of the G7 denouncing China's military drills following the provocative visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan earlier this month.

"Taiwan is an inseparable part of China," Yang Jiechi, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, told Takeo Akiba, secretary-general of Japan's National Security Secretariat, on Wednesday.