Amid heightened diplomatic disputes between China and Japan since comments made by Taiwan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, a Japanese concert in Beijing is abruptly cancelled.
According to CNBC international, a few hours before the performance of jazz quintet The Blend, some people entered the music club DDC and the concert was canceled.
Christian Petersen-Clausen, a music agent who organized several concerts in the country and spent six months getting approval from Chinese censors to allow The Blend to perform, said: “The owner of the live house came to him and said, ‘The police told me that tonight is cancelled. No discussion.”
“Everything Japanese is canceled now,” CNBC quoted him as saying.
He added that he spent six months getting approval from Chinese censors to allow The Blend to perform in the country.
On Wednesday, the concert of the Japanese singer Koki was also canceled in the city.
On November 7, Takaichi told parliament that a hypothetical Chinese attack on democratically-ruled Taiwan could prompt a military response from Tokyo.
“Prime Minister Takaichi’s blatantly erroneous remarks regarding Taiwan have fundamentally undermined the political foundation of China-Japan relations and seriously damaged bilateral economic and trade exchanges,” ministry spokesman He Yongqian said.
“If the Japanese side persists in its course and continues down the wrong path, China will definitely take the required measures and Japan will bear all the consequences,” Reuters quoted He Yongqian as saying.
US Ambassador to Japan George Glass said in a post on X: “Coercion is a tough habit for Beijing to break. But just as the United States stood by Japan during China’s last unjustified ban on Japanese seafood, we will be here for our ally this time.”
US State Department Deputy Spokesman Tommy Pigott posted on X that US support for Japan is “unwavering”.
“We categorically reject any unilateral attempts to change the status quo, including by force or coercion, in the Taiwan Strait, the East China Sea or the South China Sea,” Pigott said, without mentioning China.
Meanwhile, Taiwan has lifted all restrictions on food imports from Japan that were put in place after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, the Taiwanese and Japanese governments announced on Friday.
“Based on scientific data, Taiwan’s assessment of the risk of additional radiation exposure from Japanese food products indicates a negligible risk,” Taiwan’s Ministry of Health said in a statement.
