In the tip, there was no honeymoon interval.
Just two weeks in the past, Japan’s new prime minister Sanae Takaichi was shaking fingers with Chinese chief Xi Jinping. Now, relations between the 2 Asian nations have dramatically soured, with escalating nationalist rhetoric in China and even an obvious menace of beheading from one in every of its diplomats.
Takaichi, who was elected as Japan’s first female prime minister simply final month, has turn out to be embroiled in a rising row with Beijing over Taiwan – the democratic island that China’s ruling Communist Party claims as its personal, and a crimson line it has warned different nations to not cross.
The furor started when Takaichi told the Japanese parliament on November 7 {that a} Chinese assault on Taiwan – which lies simply 60 miles (100 kilometers) from Japanese territory – would depend as “a situation threatening Japan’s survival” and will set off a navy response from Tokyo.
Beijing has not dominated out utilizing drive to take management of the island and has ramped up the frequency and complexity of its navy drills round Taiwan lately.
Previous Japanese leaders have averted discussing Taiwan within the context of a navy response. And Washington intentionally stays obscure on how it might reply to a hypothetical invasion, a coverage generally known as “strategic ambiguity.”
Wading into the thorny difficulty of Taiwan’s protection has gotten different world leaders in scorching water with Beijing earlier than. Former US President Joe Biden set off a diplomatic panic throughout his time in workplace when he said multiple times that the United States could be keen to intervene militarily if China attacked Taiwan – forcing the White House to repeatedly stroll back his feedback, and sparking anger every time in Beijing.
Takaichi’s remarks had been met with an much more vehement response.
“The dirty neck that sticks itself in must be cut off,” wrote the Chinese consul normal in Osaka, Xue Jian, in a submit on X that has since been deleted.
The fallout has spiraled since, with Japan criticizing Xue’s “extremely inappropriate” submit and Taiwan voicing concern about Xue’s “threatening” remarks, in accordance with Reuters.
Beijing, in the meantime, has defended its place and Xue’s feedback.
A spokesperson from China’s overseas ministry on Monday accused Japan of “grossly interfering with China’s internal affairs,” saying Xue’s submit was merely responding to Takaichi’s “erroneous and dangerous remarks.”
For some, the controversy harks back to China’s “wolf warrior” diplomacy – an aggressive model of overseas coverage that emerged within the early 2020s, which frequently noticed Chinese officers take to social media platforms to hit back straight – and infrequently colorfully – at any criticism of China, however has since been dialed back as Beijing regarded to win back misplaced goodwill amongst Western nations.
And inside China, the place there’s already important streak of anti-Japanese sentiment, state media and different distinguished voices this week have additional fanned outrage over Takaichi’s assertion.
Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily condemned Takaichi as “recklessly shooting her mouth off,” and warning: “No one should harbor any illusion that they can cross the line on the Taiwan issue without paying a price.”
A social media account affiliated with state broadcaster CCTV requested: “Has her head been kicked by a donkey?”
Hu Xijin, a Chinese pundit and former editor-in-chief of the state-run tabloid Global Times, provided a extra violent warning, echoing the threats from the diplomat Xue.
“China’s battle blade for beheading invaders has been sharpened to a very keen edge,” he wrote in a submit on Tuesday. “If Japanese militarism wishes to come to the Taiwan Strait to sacrifice themselves on our blades, we will fulfill them.”
Takaichi mentioned Monday that her feedback had been “hypothetical,” and mentioned she would keep away from making related feedback in parliament once more. But the prime minister is strolling a tightrope each Japanese chief has needed to steadiness.
China stays Japan’s largest buying and selling associate, and Takaichi inherited a rustic dealing with mounting economic woes. At the identical time, Takaichi is understood for her hardline conservative views, like her mentor former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. She has pushed to strengthen Japan’s protection capability and criticized Beijing’s rising navy presence within the area.
This uneasy relationship was on show when Takaichi met Xi on the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in late October. The two leaders agreed to construct a “strategic mutually beneficial relationship,” Takaichi mentioned afterward; nonetheless, she additionally raised with Xi the hot-button difficulty of China’s exercise within the East China Sea, together with round islands claimed by each nations.
Even earlier than she took workplace, Takaichi’s stance on Taiwan was clear. She visited the island earlier this yr and known as for cooperation on “defense challenges,” which Beijing condemned on the time. During the APEC summit, she additionally met with Taiwan’s consultant, once more angering China.
The present spat comes throughout a yr when Japan-China relations are already strained, partly due to Tokyo’s colonial and war-time previous.
September marked the eightieth anniversary of the tip of World War II, which Beijing commemorated with a massive military parade. There’s longstanding historic hostility between the 2 nations; China was an important Allied associate, preventing in opposition to Japan’s full-scale invasion that ended solely with Tokyo’s formal give up in 1945.
The scars of that period run deep. Japanese Imperial troops killed greater than 200,000 unarmed males and civilians, and raped and tortured tens of 1000’s of girls and ladies, in what is called the Nanjing Massacre – one of the crucial infamous wartime atrocities of the twentieth century.
Ahead of the parade, Chinese officers ramped up their rhetoric and accused Japan of whitewashing historical past. Adding gasoline to the fireplace, China additionally launched at the least four WWII films this year, together with some that depict the Nanjing Massacre and the sinking of a Japanese vessel.
Fearing a spike in anti-Japanese sentiment forward of the parade, the Japanese embassy in Beijing warned its residents to remain cautious and keep away from talking Japanese loudly in public – maybe conscious that lately, there has been a spate of violent attacks in opposition to Japanese nationals in China.
That advanced historical past includes Taiwan, too.
The island was as soon as a Japanese colony that Imperial China had ceded to Imperial Japan. After Japan was defeated in WWII, China’s ruling Nationalists took management of Taiwan – then, a number of years later, fled to the island and moved their seat of presidency there after dropping a bloody civil warfare to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Today, the CCP views the self-ruling island as its personal territory, regardless of by no means having managed it, and has vowed to grab it by drive if obligatory. Party leaders and state media have repeatedly claimed that the tip of WWII marked the island’s return to Chinese rule and liberation from Japanese occupation – a view Chinese officers alluded to this week as they berated Takaichi.
“Japan holds historical responsibility towards the Chinese people regarding the Taiwan issue, having committed unmentionable crimes during the 50 years of colonial rule over Taiwan,” mentioned Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, on Wednesday when requested about Takaichi’s feedback.
“Eighty years ago, we defeated the Japanese aggressors, restored Taiwan, and ended their occupation and plunder,” he mentioned.
“Should anyone again attempt to challenge China’s core interests” or thwart reunification with Taiwan, Chen mentioned, “will never accept or tolerate it.”