Anadolu staff
27 July 2026•Update: 27 July 2026
China Monday firmly rejected that its top diplomat Wang Yi met with his Japanese counterpart Toshimitsu Motegi during last week’s ASEAN Regional Forum in the Philippines’ capital Manila.
“To put the record straight, I repeat, Foreign Minister Wang Yi did not meet with the Japanese side in Manila and never scheduled such a meeting. No contact or exchange of words ever took place there,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told reporters in Beijing.
The contradiction comes days after the top Japanese diplomat said he had briefly spoken with Wang, when the two ran into each other during the meeting in Manila.
According to Motegi, the exchange included a discussion on bilateral relations, though Japanese media reported that the exchange was mostly greetings and pleasantries.
The conflicting accounts once again expose the strained ties between the two arch-rivals, particularly since November, when a comment about Taiwan by Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi angered China.”