Japan, China Exchange Protests After Japan’s PM Taiwan Remarks

(MENAFN) Japan and China traded fierce diplomatic protests on Monday following inflammatory social media comments by a Chinese diplomat and warnings from Tokyo's leadership that military aggression toward Taiwan could justify Japanese defense action.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi declared Friday that any Chinese armed intervention against Taiwan—whether invasion or maritime blockade—might qualify as a "survival-threatening situation" permitting Japan to "exercise its right to collective self-defense."

Beijing, which claims Taiwan as its "breakaway province," condemned the statement as a "wrongful and dangerous" effort to detach the island from Chinese sovereignty.

Tensions intensified after Xue Jian, China's consul general in Osaka, published a message on US social media platform X responding to news coverage of Takaichi's position, writing to "cut off a dirty neck without a moment of hesitation."

"Are you ready for that?" the post read, according to media.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara confirmed Tokyo filed an official complaint with Beijing on Sunday, characterizing the message as "extremely inappropriate for a Chinese diplomatic mission head."

"The intention of the message was unclear," Kihara told reporters, noting that Japan's Foreign Ministry and Embassy in Beijing demanded removal of the content, with corrective steps implemented by Sunday evening.

China countered with its own formal objection, charging Japan with meddling in domestic matters.

"Takaichi's wrongful and dangerous remarks concerning Taiwan grossly interfere in China's internal affairs," Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a briefing in Beijing.

"China strongly urges Japan to take a hard look at its historical responsibilities on the Taiwan question," Lin said. "Abide by the one-China principle and the principles in the four political documents between the two countries, stop making provocations and crossing red lines, and stop sending wrong signals to Taiwan independence separatist forces."

Lin characterized the consul's message as "a response to the wrongful and dangerous remarks that attempt to separate Taiwan from China and peddle military intervention in the Taiwan Strait."

Takaichi on Monday "denied her intention" to withdraw her previous position, informing legislators she commented "under the assumption of a worst-case scenario."

"It is in line with conventional government views," she said, though adding she "will no longer express her views assuming a particular situation" and has "no plan to make her remarks a collective view of the government."

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