Speaking by video on Japan’s Security Strategy on June 28 at an event organized by the Hudson Institute, Japan’s Deputy Defense Minister Yasuhide Nakayama warned about the increased military collaboration between Russia and China, questioning whether it had been appropriate for Japan and trans-Atlantic countries to accept the “one-China principle.” He said the West had to “wake up” to Beijing’s increasing pressure on Taiwan, and protect the island “as a democratic country.”
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at the June 29 briefing that “The politician in question flagrantly refers to Taiwan as a ‘country’ on multiple occasions, severely violating principles set out in the four political documents including the China-Japan Joint Statement and its solemn and repeated commitment of not seeing Taiwan as a country. We ask Japan to make crystal clarification, and ensure that such things won’t happen again.
The Taiwan question bears on the political foundation of China-Japan relations, the basic trust and good faith between the two countries and the international rule of law and justice. We seriously urge the Japanese side to earnestly honor its commitment, be prudent in words and actions, avoid undermining China’s sovereignty in any form and refrain from sending any wrong signal to the ‘Taiwan independence’ forces.”
Such “missteps,” however, have been evermore frequent since the appointment of Nobuo Kishi as Japan’s Defense Minister. Kishi, the younger brother of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is especially fond of Taiwan, which Japan annexed after the first Sino-Japanese War in 1895 and controlled until it was returned to China after World War II.
