Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong called Japanese Ambassador Kanasugi Kenji into his office for a tirade about Taiwan on Thursday, the latest escalation of a diplomatic row that has already seen one Chinese official threaten to cut Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae’s head off.
Sun lectured Kanasugi about the history of China, Japan, and Taiwan, and repeated China’s furious demands that Takaichi retract her comment that Japan would view a Chinese attack on Taiwan as a “situation threatening Japan’s survival.”
Takaichi made the comment on November 7 in remarks to her parliament, the National Diet.
“The situation regarding Taiwan has become serious. We must assume the worst-case scenario,” said Takaichi, who strongly favored Taiwan throughout her career as a legislator before becoming prime minister in late October.
The prime minister’s use of the phrase “survival-threatening” enraged China because even under Japan’s current pacifist constitution, the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) are permitted to take military action under those circumstances. Takaichi is among the Japanese politicians who support amending the constitution to give the JSDF more latitude to take military actio
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