Taiwan, Beijing and the US: has Japan chosen a side?

Asian giants China and Japan are uneasy neighbours. While they set aside historical animosity and mistrust in the early days of the pandemic – Japan sending boxes of masks to China bearing a line of classical poetry that they “share the wind and moon under the same sky” – tensions are again rising.

Beijing is at loggerheads with the West, and US ally Japan has had to walk a tightrope between China and the United States. But in recent weeks, after several senior Japanese officials broke with Tokyo’s traditionally neutral position to show support for Taiwan, angering Beijing, Chinese observers are asking whether Japan has chosen a side.