BEIJING: China said on Friday (Nov 13) it summoned the Japanese ambassador over remarks the country's new prime minister made about Taiwan.
Last week, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi (pic) told Japan's parliament that armed attacks on Taiwan could warrant sending troops to support the island under "collective self-defence".
If an emergency in Taiwan entails "battleships and the use of force, then that could constitute a situation threatening the survival (of Japan), any way you slice it", Takaichi told parliament.
Beijing insists Taiwan is part of its territory and has not ruled out the use of force to seize control of the self-governing island.
Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong summoned the Japanese ambassador to China Kenji Kanasugi on Thursday, according to a statement published on Friday on Beijing's foreign ministry website.
It said Sun made "serious demarches over Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's erroneous remarks regarding China".
"If anyone dares to interfere with China's unification cause in any form, China will surely strike back hard," the statement added.
Beijing's foreign ministry on Thursday said it "will by no means tolerate" Takaichi's remarks.
"The Japanese side must correct its wrongdoing at once and retract the unjustified remarks," spokesman Lin Jian told reporters at a press briefing.
Takaichi told parliament Monday she had no intention of retracting her statement and insisted it was consistent with Tokyo's previous stance.
But she said she would in future refrain from referring explicitly to specific scenarios.
Long seen as a China hawk, Takaichi has been a regular visitor to the Yasukuni shrine that honours Japan's war dead and is an outspoken backer of Taiwan, advocating security ties with the self-ruled island.
Security legislation passed in 2015 allows Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defence under certain conditions including if there was a clear danger to Japan's survival.
In response to Takaichi's comments, the Chinese consul general in Osaka Xue Jian threatened in a now-removed post on X to "cut off that dirty neck without a second of hesitation".
He did not name Takaichi but quoted a news article about her remarks.
Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said on Thursday that Xue's post was "highly inappropriate".
"We strongly urge the Chinese side to continue taking appropriate measures to ensure that this does not affect the broad direction of Japan-China relations," added Motegi, who was in Canada for a G7 meeting. - AFP
