Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi responds to questions during a session of the House of Representatives' Budget Committee at the National Diet in Tokyo on Monday, November 10, 2025. -- Photo by Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP
TAIPEI (Bloomberg): Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Monday defended her description of a conflict over Taiwan as potentially amounting to an existential risk for Japan after a Chinese diplomat accused her of meddling in Beijing’s internal affairs.
Last Friday, Takaichi said that if military force were to be used in a Taiwan conflict, including the use of warships, it could be considered a "survival-threatening situation” for Japan. That classification is significant because it would provide a legal justification for Japan to deploy its military to help defend friendly nations.
Her comments on Friday sparked anger from Xue Jian, the consul-general of China in the western city of Osaka, who took to X to say that Japan’s stance in considering a Taiwan contingency as threatening its own survival as a fatal path chosen by "foolish politicians.”
"If you go sticking that filthy neck where it doesn’t belong, it’s gonna get sliced right off. You ready for that?” Xue wrote in a separate post, according to Japan Forward, the English-language branch of the Sankei Shimbun. The post was subsequently deleted.
"Although I did state a number of possible scenarios, I also said the government will make a comprehensive judgment on whether the situation constitutes a ‘survival-threatening situation’, taking into account all information,” Takaichi said Monday when asked in parliament to clarify her position on the matter.
Takaichi didn’t say on Monday or in her initial comments that Japan would deploy its military in such a scenario, but her acknowledgment of a potential formal classification of an existential risk provides more clarity than previous administrations of how Japan would view a clash over Taiwan, such as a possible Chinese invasion.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said Monday that Tokyo had filed a complaint to Beijing over Xue’s remarks on X.
"Although the intention of the post is unclear, it must be said that the wording was very inappropriate for the leader of a Chinese consulate,” Kihara said.
Asked to comment on the deleted post, Lin Jian, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said Monday in a press conference that the post "is a response to the wrongful and dangerous remarks that attempt to separate Taiwan from China.”
"It is irresponsible for some Japanese politicians and media to deliberately hype the post, create confusion and divert attention,” he added. Lin also criticised Takaichi’s initial remarks on Friday, saying it hints at "the possibility of meddling in the Taiwan Strait by force.”
Repeated calls to the consulate in Osaka went unanswered.
US Ambassador to Japan George Glass said Xue was threatening Takaichi and the Japanese people.
"Time for Beijing to behave like the ‘good neighbor’ it talks repeatedly about - but fails repeatedly to become,” Glass said on X.
Under its pacifist constitution, Japan retains tight controls on the use of its military. But a law adopted in 2015 reinterpreted the constitution to allow the use of armed force for collective self-defense in certain limited situations, including a "survival-threatening situation” for Japan. Previous administrations have shied away from specifying what exactly would constitute such a scenario.
Adam Liff, a professor of Japanese politics and security at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School, said Takaichi’s remarks shouldn’t be seen as a commitment to any particular action in a crisis over Taiwan.
"Her response is best understood as a frank recognition of one possibility that’s been discussed internally within the government of Japan - and noted in public by many politicians and other observers - rather than a clear shift in position,” Liff said.
China considers Taiwan, a self-governed island located between Japan and China, as its own and has not ruled out the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. Japan does not have formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan but has spoken out against any attempts to change the status quo unilaterally, and has said cross-strait ties must be resolved peacefully.
Earlier this month, China criticized Takaichi for meeting with a Taiwan official on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea and then posting about the meeting on X.
Partly referring to that meeting, China’s spokesman Lin said Monday that "Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory. How to resolve the Taiwan question and realize national reunification is purely China’s own affairs that brooks no external interference.”
-- With assistance from Keiko Ujikane, Eddy Duan, Colum Murphy and Yuko Takeo.
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