China’s Foreign Ministry said it had “lodged a solemn protest against Japan” Thursday in response to remarks made by Japanese Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide on Wednesday in which he correctly referred to Taiwan as a “country.” “In his first one-on-one parliamentary debate with opposition leaders Wednesday [June 9], Suga, naming Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan, said, ‘Such three countries have been imposing strong restrictions on privacy rights’ to curb the novel coronavirus outbreak,” Japan’s Kyodo News reported June 10.