Just two weeks ago, the Oct. 31 meeting between Chinese President Xi Jingpin and newly-inaugurated Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi appeared to have set the two key Asian nations on a path toward rebuilding a much-needed “Mutually Beneficial Relationship Based on Common Strategic Interests.” Western war party interests were not pleased.
Those initial steps are now in question, following Prime Minister Takaichi’s statement in a Nov. 7 debate in the Diet, that Japan could possibly declare a “survival-threatening situation” in case of a military attack on Taiwan. Under legislation passed in 2015, Japan’s Self-Defense Forces are allowed to enter into a conflict to defend a close ally, only if Japan’s survival is declared to be threatened. That “survival-threatening” clause in the 2015 law has “U.S.A.,” with its 120 military bases on Japanese territory, written all over it. And it is quite possible that Washington or London instigated the entire Diet debate in order to provoke the crisis that has now erupted.
Beijing “will by no means tolerate such remarks,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian stated forcefully in his Nov. 13 press briefing. This is the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Japanese militarism and “its war of aggression and brutal crimes against humanity,” he reminded. “Over the last century, Japanese militarists have waged aggression more than once under the pretext of [a] `survival-threatening situation.’” He cited as examples Japan’s justification for its 1931 invasion of Manchuria and Mongolia and the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. China demands Takaichi “retract” her statement, he stated.
“What is Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi up to by reviving the phrase `survival-threatening situation’? Is Japan going to repeat its past mistakes of militarism? Does Japan try to once again make enemy with the Chinese and other Asian people? Does Japan attempt to subvert the post-World War II international order?” he asked angrily.
