By Ryan Woo
BEIJING (Reuters) -Japan will suffer a “crushing defeat” by the Chinese military if it tries to use force to intervene over Taiwan, China’s defence ministry said on Friday, ramping up the rhetoric over Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remarks about the island.
Takaichi sparked a diplomatic row with Beijing with comments in parliament last week that a Chinese attack on Taiwan could amount to a “survival-threatening situation” and trigger a military response from Tokyo.
China’s top diplomat in Osaka shared a news article about Takaichi’s remarks about Taiwan on X and commented “the dirty neck that sticks itself in must be cut off”, prompting a protest from Japan’s embassy in Beijing to Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong.
Chinese Defence Ministry spokesperson Jiang Bin said that Takaichi’s words were extremely irresponsible and dangerous.
“Should the Japanese side fail to draw lessons from history and dare to take a risk, or even use force to interfere in the Taiwan question, it will only suffer a crushing defeat against the steel-willed People’s Liberation Army and pay a heavy price,” Jiang said in a statement.
Chinese state media has also weighed in with a series of vitriolic editorials and commentaries lambasting Takaichi, given lingering grievances about Japan’s wartime past and China’s extreme sensitivity over anything Taiwan-related.
Takaichi’s remarks were by no means an “isolated political rant,” the Communist Party’s People’s Daily said earlier on Friday in a commentary.
Japan’s right wing has been trying to break free from the constraints of their post-World War Two constitution and pursue the status of a military power, said the commentary published under the pen name “Zhong Sheng”, meaning “Voice of China” and often used to give views on foreign policy.
“In recent years, Japan has been racing headlong down the path of military buildup,” the paper added.
“From frequent visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, to denying the Nanjing Massacre, to vigorously hyping the ‘China threat theory,’ Takaichi’s every step follows the old footprints of historical guilt, attempting to whitewash a history of aggression and revive militarism.”
World War Two, and the Japanese invasion of China which preceded it in 1931, remain a source of ongoing tension between Beijing and Tokyo.
Beijing claims democratically-governed Taiwan as its own and has not ruled out using force to take control of the island. Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s claims and says only its people can decide the island’s future.
Taiwan sits just over 110 km (68 miles) from Japanese territory and the waters around the island provide a vital sea route for trade that Tokyo depends on. Japan also hosts the largest contingent of U.S. military overseas.
Meanwhile, Japanese broadcaster NTV reported on Friday the Chinese embassy in Tokyo had instructed its staff to avoid going out due to concerns about rising anti-China sentiment.
In a regular news conference, Japan’s top government spokesperson Minoru Kihara reiterated the country’s position on Taiwan, telling reporters that Tokyo hopes for a peaceful resolution of the issue through dialogue.
‘SELF-DIRECTED FARCE’
China has also cranked up its rhetoric against what it calls “diehard” Taiwan independence separatists.
On Friday, the State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office criticised Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker Puma Shen, who visited Berlin earlier this week. Shen said China was threatening to try to get him arrested while abroad, but that he was not frightened.
“Taiwan independence advocates are already at the dusk of their days and at a dead end,” the office’s spokesperson Chen Binhua said, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
A day earlier, Chinese police issued a wanted notice and offered a $35,000 reward for two Taiwanese social media influencers they accused of “separatism”.
The two influencers took to social media to poke fun at the wanted notice.
One of them, the rapper Mannam PYC, posted a video on Friday where he tried to turn himself in to police in Taiwan.
“Why won’t the Taiwan police arrest me? Does that mean everyone supports Taiwan independence?” he wrote, sarcastically.
China’s legal system has no authority or jurisdiction in Taiwan.
(Reporting by Ryan Woo; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Taipei; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Shri Navaratnam)
