Japan and China continue to spar over Takaichi’s Taiwan remarks

The Japanese and Chinese governments continue to trade words over Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remarks about a role for Japan in a Taiwan contingency, with the Japanese government protesting the Chinese government’s issuance of a travel warning about Japan to its citizens.

This exchange followed each government’s summoning the other’s ambassador for reprimands. On Friday, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned China’s ambassador to lodge a protest with his government; Japan’s ambassador had previously been summoned for a similar dressing down in Beijing.

The Takaichi government may be reluctant to escalate further – notwithstanding calls from within the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Ishin no Kai to declare Xue Jian, China’s consul-general in Osaka, persona non grata – but even if the two governments are able to refrain from further steps, it is difficult to see how Tokyo and Beijing will be able to put the relationship on a sounder footing in the near term.

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