00:01Japan and China's long testy relations have worsened in recent days,
00:06following comments by new Premier Sanai Takeichi about a possible attack by Beijing on Taiwan.
00:16Before taking power last month, Takeichi, an acolyte of ex-premier Shinzo Abe,
00:22was a vocal critic of China and its military build-up in the Asia-Pacific.
00:27She has been a regular at a shrine that honors Japan's war dead,
00:32including those of guilty of crimes in World War II,
00:35that is seen by Asian nations as a symbol of Japan's militaristic past.
00:41Japan's first woman prime minister has visited Taiwan in the past
00:45and met Taipei's representative at a recent APEC summit.
00:50She also held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the same event.
00:54Her comments on November 7th were widely interpreted as implying that an attack on Taiwan,
01:01which is just 100 kilometers from the nearest Japanese island,
01:05could warrant Tokyo's military support.
01:08If a Taiwan emergency entails, Takeichi told Parliament,
01:12battleships and the use of force,
01:15then that could constitute a situation threatening the survival any way you slice it.
01:20Takeichi said,
01:22Japan's self-imposed rules say that it can only act militarily under certain conditions,
01:36including an existential threat.
01:39Wang Hongzhen, a political analyst at National Chengkung University in Taiwan,
01:44said the comments,
01:46sent a very strong message to China.
01:48Japan is no longer just standing by and watching.
01:52He added,
01:53the probability of Japan intervening to deter China
01:56and prevent any military action by China around the Taiwan Strait
02:00has increased significantly.
02:02Beijing insists Taiwan,
02:08which was occupied for decades by Japan until 1945,
02:12is part of its territory
02:13and has not ruled out the use of force to seize control.
02:18In a now-removed post on X,
02:20the Chinese Consul General Inosaka Suijian
02:23threatened to cut off that dirty neck,
02:26apparently referring to Takeichi.
02:28Tokyo lodged a protest
02:30and Takeichi's ruling party passed a resolution
02:33calling for the envoy to be declared persona non grata.
02:38Beijing's foreign ministry called on Japan
02:40to retract the unjustified remarks,
02:44warning otherwise that the consequences
02:45must be borne by the Japanese side.
02:49A day later,
02:50China said it had summoned the Japanese ambassador
02:52to make serious demarches
02:54about the erroneous remarks.
02:56The foreign ministry said,
02:59if anyone dares to interfere
03:00with China's unification cause in any form,
03:03China will surely strike back hard.
03:06In response,
03:08Japan said that its position on Taiwan was unchanged
03:11and that it continues to urge
03:13peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
03:19Tokyo normalized diplomatic ties with Beijing in 1972,
03:25but relations have long been dogged by historical issues.
03:29Japan also has a warm relationship with Taipei.
03:33Previous sitting Japanese prime ministers
03:35have avoided commenting directly on Taiwan's defense,
03:39choosing instead to maintain strategic ambiguity.
03:43Similarly,
03:44the United States has long been deliberately ambiguous
03:47on whether it would deploy its military
03:49to defend Taiwan,
03:50although former President Joe Biden
03:52repeatedly suggested he would order
03:54the U.S. military to intervene
03:56if China moved on the island.
03:58For future generations,
04:06the U.S. military as the new
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