TOKYO: US President Donald Trump advised Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi not to provoke China over Taiwan’s sovereignty, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, after a diplomatic spat between Tokyo and Beijing. The row between Asia’s two biggest economies began after Takaichi said that Tokyo could intervene militarily in any attack on the self-ruled island, which China claims as part of its territory.

Trump’s back-to-back calls with Xi and Takaichi did nothing to temper Beijing’s pressure campaign on Tokyo over Taiwan.

The report comes after the Wall Street Journal claimed the US president told Sanae Takaichi to ‘dial down the volume’ in dispute over Taiwan