Japan’s Masaaki Kanai, Director-General of the Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, met in Beijing on Nov. 18 with Liu Jinsong, Director-General of the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Asian Affairs Department, in an effort to calm the stormy waters surrounding recent comments by Japan’s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. In parliamentary remarks on Nov. 7, Takaichi’s possibly careless invocation of the phrase a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, in describing Chinese use of force in Taiwan, has triggered an uproar in Beijing, which has noted the similarity with Japanese militarists in the past, using such justifications for Pearl Harbor ("a battle for Japan’s survival") and for the 1931 invasion of Manchuria ("Manchuria and Mongolia are the lifeline of Japan").
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Mao Ning reported that, in Liu’s consultation today with Kanai, according to Global Times, China “lodged stern representations with Japan once again over ... Takaichi’s erroneous remarks on Taiwan question, pointing out that Takaichi’s fallacious statements seriously violate international law and the basic norms governing international relations, gravely undermine the post-war international order, and blatantly contravene the one-China principle and the spirit of the four political documents between China and Japan. These remarks fundamentally damage the political foundation of China-Japan relations, are of an extremely egregious nature and impact, and have aroused strong indignation and condemnation among the Chinese people…. China solemnly urges Japan to retract its erroneous statements, stop creating trouble on issues related to China, and take concrete actions to correct its mistakes and uphold the political foundation of China-Japan relations.”
Global Times reported that Kanai was seen shortly afterwards at the airport, glum and tight-lipped.
