Following China’s “wolf warrior” attack on Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, with Chinese Consul General in Osaka Xue Jian (薛劍) threatening on social media to chop her head off, Beijing has doubled down through intimidation and coercion.
In addition to sending drones into Japan’s southwestern waters near Taiwan, China has employed its favorite tool: holding its tourists hostage by officially discouraging travel to Japan, all to attack Takaichi’s response in parliament to a question from the opposition on what satisfies a “survival-threatening situation” in which Japan’s defense forces would need to be deployed if China militarily assaults Taiwan.
Stephen Nagy, senior fellow at the Tokyo-based MacDonald Laurier Institute, said democracies that align closely with Japan such as Taiwan, the US and the EU need to work collectively to fill that economic gap left by Chinese tourist cancelations. They could start by promoting tourism to Japan as a joint public effort to blunt Beijing’s explicit economic coercion.
Nagy suggests that visa relaxations, travel deals and discounts for travelers from specific countries could help offset the deficit.
Taiwan’s main carriers have already been increasing flights. EVA Air added new routes from Taipei and Kaohsiung to Japan’s Kobe, as well as charter flights to Hakodate, Aomori and Matsuyama.
Apart from its cherry blossoms, Matsuyama shares the same characters as Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport), originally built as Matsuyama airport in 1941.
Starlux derives more than half of its revenue from Japanese routes. Budget airline Tigerair is launching new flights next month from Kaohsiung and Tainan to Kumamoto and Okinawa, while its parent company, flag carrier China Airlines, is boosting flights between the two capitals.
Taiwan last year comprised the third-largest source of tourism to Japan, with more than 6 million. While China took second place, it still fell within the 6 million bracket, with South Korea taking the top spot at close to 9 million. With some promotion, Taiwan’s contribution could easily go up, given Japan’s popularity as a vacation and shopping spot among Taiwanese.
Apart from economic coercion, China has tuned up its malign disinformation campaign. Nagy said that “friends of Japan should call out disinformation against Japan to jointly push back against Beijing’s belligerence.”
He believes that only collective action could prove effective in raising the costs for Chinese intimidation, action that could come at an opportune time as China’s economy is facing downward pressure.
We have seen that already taking place with President William Lai (賴清德) on Monday calling out Beijing’s actions. Japanese and Taiwanese industry groups signed green tech and artificial intelligence (AI) cooperation pacts earlier this month, while the two governments signed a border information agreement prior to that. AI development has been a key focus of Lai’s presidency, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co and other tech giants already expanding there make Japan an ideal partner.
Chinese coercion of Japan could actually work against its own interests. Tokyo-based defense expert Kosuke Takahashi said that this could push a stronger coalition against China, involving Japan, Australia, the Philippines, the UK and Canada.
There are already loud calls across Japan to expel Xue as persona non grata for his threats against Takaichi. Osaka Governor Hiroyuki Yoshimura, who is also leader of the Japan Innovation Party — a member of the ruling coalition — on Tuesday told reporters that he would boycott all activities hosted by Xue and demanded an apology.
Although Japan sent Masaaki Kanai, director-general of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, to Beijing this week, he conveyed that Tokyo would not retract Takaichi’s Taiwan comment. As more harassment from Beijing is expected, it is ever more important that Taiwan and other democratic Pacific countries come to Tokyo’s support to collectively push back on Beijing’s bullying.
Rath Wang is a senior policy fellow at Safe Spaces, a consulting firm based in Taipei and Washington focusing on Taiwan’s politics, media and civil society. He is a producer and host of political talk shows and podcasts, and has worked on political campaigns and advocacies in Taiwan, Japan and the US.
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