China said it called off a face-to-face meeting between Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Japanese counterpart over a G-7 statement expressing concern about Beijing’s “threatening actions” around Taiwan in the wake of a visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The Chinese side had earlier announced the meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, which had been expected as early as Thursday on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting in Cambodia. (https://news.yahoo.com/china-cancels-japan-meeting-over-081750363.html) Pelosi is set to have talks in Tokyo on Friday with senior Japanese lawmakers. The statement released by the foreign ministers of the Group of Seven on Wednesday was “irresponsible,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters. In it, the group said there was “no justification to use a visit as pretext for aggressive military activity in the Taiwan Strait.” Hayashi on Tuesday declined to comment on Pelosi’s trip, saying only in general it was extremely important for the international community that the US and China have stable ties. Tokyo subsequently lodged a protest over Chinese military drills around Taiwan, some of which were set to be held in what Japan considers its exclusive economic zone close to its southwestern-most islands.