China blasts Japanese minister’s ‘sinister’ remarks about Taiwan

Beijing lodges diplomatic protest with Japan after defence minister calls island a democratic country'

China and Japan are once again embroiled in a diplomatic row over Taiwan, in the latest example of Beijing's extreme sensitivity over the status of the self-ruled island and Tokyo's changing attitude towards Beijing.

Speaking to the US conservative thinktank Hudson Institute on Monday, Japan's state minister of defence, Yasuhide Nakayama, spoke of a growing threat posed by Chinese and Russian collaboration, and said it was necessary to wake up" to Beijing's pressure on Taiwan and protect the island as a democratic country".