China Boosting Int’l Campaign against Takaichi’s Taiwan Remarks

Beijing, Nov. 23 (Jiji Press)–China is stepping up its campaign to win the international community’s support for its criticism of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s recent remarks on a potential contingency over Taiwan. Beijing is also approaching South Korea, which has a territorial issue with Japan over the Sea of Japan islets called Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea. But the efforts have not paid off. Only a handful of countries close to Beijing, including Russia, appear to be supporting China’s argument. China resolutely supports mutual core interests, Chinese Premier Li Qiang stressed at a meeting Friday with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, which was held on the fringe of a Group of 20 summit in Johannesburg. Li aimed to obtain support from South Africa, chair of the summit among the 20 advanced and emerging economies, with in mind the Taiwan issue, which is the “core of the core interests” of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s administration. Also on Friday, Fu Cong, China’s ambassador to the United Nations, sent to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres a letter demanding Takaichi withdraw her remarks. The letter said that China will “resolutely exercise its right of self-defense” to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity if Japan “dares to attempt an armed intervention in the cross-Strait situation,” which “would be an act of aggression.” At a U.N. General Assembly meeting Tuesday, Fu said that Japan is not qualified to seek membership of the U.N. Security Council. Takaichi said at a parliamentary meeting Nov. 7 that China’s possible use of force against Taiwan could create a critical situation for Japan’s existence, allowing the country to exercise its right to collective self-defense. According to state-run China Central Television, China’s representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency said at its board meeting Friday that the international community will never forgive Japan if it tries to walk the path of militarism again, noting that Takaichi has not ruled out the possibility of reviewing her country’s three nonnuclear principles. Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a press conference on Monday last week that “various provocative remarks and actions we’ve seen over the past few weeks from Japan have caused alarm, condemnation and protests from its neighboring countries,” asked for comments about the expansion of Japan’s National Museum of Territory and Sovereignty in Tokyo. The museum is for demonstrating Japan’s stance on territorial issues, including over the Takeshima islets, which are under the effective control of South Korea and claimed by Japan. It was unusual for the Chinese ministry to refer to the Takeshima issue in this way. But South Korea is cool to the Chinese argument. The JoongAng Ilbo, a major South Korean daily, said that China seems to have an intention to revive the historical confrontation between Japan and South Korea and shake the cooperative relationship among the two countries and the United States. Some online comments in South Korea pointed to China’s coercive actions in the Yellow Sea, where the border between China and South Korea has yet to be drawn. In 2023, the Xi administration staged a global campaign to discredit Japan over the release of tritium-containing treated water in to the ocean from Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s tsunami-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan. The campaign ended in failure, however, as few countries supported China’s claim, which lacked scientific grounds. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]