China is escalating its confrontation with Tokyo over Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments on Taiwan, with state media threatening major countermeasures after Beijing’s travel warnings raised the specter of economic retribution.
Yuyuantantian, a social media account linked to China’s state broadcaster and frequently used to signal official policy, published a commentary over the weekend warning that Beijing “has made full preparations for substantive retaliation.”
The post hinted at imposing sanctions, suspending economic, diplomatic and military ties, and restricting trade as forms of potential reprisal.
Photo: AP
Hours after the post, China’s People’s Liberation Army Daily reinforced that message publishing a commentary by a state-affiliated academic warning that if Japan’s military got involved in the Taiwan Strait, “the entire country would risk becoming a battlefield.”
The diplomatic crisis erupted over Takaichi’s comments on Nov. 7 that military force used in any Taiwan conflict could be considered a “survival-threatening situation,” a classification that would provide a legal justification for Japan to support friendly countries that choose to respond.
The row risks unraveling recent progress in bilateral ties, just a few weeks after Takaichi met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and agreed to improve relations. The spat also threatens to inflict damage on businesses straddling the key trading partners, as China warns tourists and students about heightened risks in Japan.
Japan yesterday dispatched a senior diplomat to China in a bid to smooth tensions, public broadcaster NHK reported, citing a senior official at the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but no details have been released.
Meanwhile, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Mao Ning (毛寧) yesterday told reporters that Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強) “has no arrangement to meet with the Japanese leader” during the G20 summit in South Africa on Saturday and Sunday.
The standoff with China represents Takaichi’s first major foreign policy challenge since she became prime minister last month.
While she has relatively high approval ratings, surveys show the public is split on the idea of Japan becoming involved in any conflict over Taiwan.
A Kyodo News poll taken over the weekend showed that 48.8 percent of respondents agreed that Japan could exercise collective self-defense in such a scenario, while 44.2 percent disagreed.
Any further escalation of the spat with China, particularly economic retaliation by Beijing, could also increase the challenge for Takaichi of trying to address inflation and a slowing economy through stimulus measures.
Another poll released by Asahi Shimbun yesterday showed that Takaichi continued to bask in high popularity.
Her Cabinet had a 69 percent approval rating, while 17 percent of survey participants disapproved, a weekend poll by the newspaper showed.
Additional reporting by AP and AFP
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