A planned trilateral meeting of culture ministers from China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea has been postponed after China announced it would not participate. The decision follows recent comments made by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi regarding Taiwan, which Beijing described as “blatantly erroneous” and harmful to regional cooperation.
The meeting was scheduled to take place in Macao on November 24. However, the ROK’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism confirmed that the event has been put on hold following China’s notification.
China’s Foreign Ministry stated that the Japanese leader’s remarks had “hurt the feelings of the Chinese people” and disrupted the mutual trust essential for trilateral cooperation. The comments were also seen as challenging the post-war international order, leading Beijing to conclude that conditions for the meeting were “temporarily unavailable.”