China-Japan Diplomatic Row Escalates

TaiwanPlus News

Chinese officials continue to inflame tensions with Japan, threatening to inflict a "crushing defeat" on the country and warning citizens to not travel there, following comments by Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae on her country's potential reaction to an invasion of Taiwan.

Transcript

00:00After Japanese Prime Minister Takechi Sane's comments on possibly intervening in a Taiwan

00:05contingency, Chinese officials have only grown more strident. First was a now-deleted tweet

00:11from China's Consul General in Osaka saying next should be cut, spiraling up to China's

00:16Defense Ministry directly saying Japan would suffer a quote-unquote crushing defeat,

00:20and the government warning its citizens against traveling to the country.

00:30This is a major test of Sane's leadership, only two weeks after she met with Chinese President Xi Jinping

00:47in South Korea at this year's APEC Summit to stabilize relations. Even before becoming Prime Minister,

00:53Sane's stance on Taiwan and controversial issues like Japan's actions in World War II

00:57had China wary of her. The Japanese government insists that its position on Taiwan has not changed.

01:04Issues over Taiwan need to be resolved via dialogue in a peaceful manner,

01:09and that's what we expect, and that's the government's consistent stance. Also,

01:14the government's stance on the 1972 Japan-China declaration is the policy, and that remains unchanged.

01:21An op-ed in the Chinese state-owned People's Daily

01:24said Sane is the first Japanese leader since 1945 to threaten China. Prior Japanese leaders usually

01:31followed the US policy of maintaining strategic ambiguity on Taiwan's defense, and what steps

01:36they would take if a conflict were to break out. Yet despite the pressure from Beijing,

01:40which included summoning Japan's ambassador to lodge a complaint, Takeichi has not retracted her comments.

01:45Beijing trying to impose more pressure, both verbally and diplomatically, to try to force Takeichi back

01:53to retracting her comment and then returning to the more longstanding policy that Japan has

02:01always implemented in place with regard to the issue of Taiwan. I think for her to backtrack her

02:08comment is probably quite unlikely in the near term, unless there is an obvious domestic pushback against

02:16what she had said. Taiwan is just over 100 kilometers away from Japan's easternmost island,

02:22making an invasion an acute concern for Japan's security. Japan constitutionally does not have

02:27an army and cannot deploy its forces except in cases of self-defense. And it's an open question

02:32whether a Taiwan-straight conflict would qualify. Joseph Wu and Larry Siano for Taiwan Plus.

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