EFFORTS TO EASE TENSIONS
Beijing claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own and has not ruled out using force to take control of the island.
Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s claims and says only its people can decide the island’s future.
Taiwan sits just over 110km from Japanese territory, and the waters around the island provide a vital sea route for trade that Tokyo depends on.
Japan also hosts the largest contingent of US military overseas. Japan has sought to tamp down the escalating dispute with China as Beijing retaliated in various ways, urging citizens to halt travel to Japan, and said its premier has no plans to meet Takaichi on the sidelines of this week’s G20 summit in South Africa.
Kihara said nothing has been decided about bilateral meetings during G20, but that Japan remains open to conducting “various dialogues” with China.
On Sunday, Chinese coast guard ships sailed through waters around a group of East China Sea islands controlled by Japan but claimed by China. Japan’s coast guard said it drove the Chinese ships away.
The US does not formally recognise the islands, known as Senkaku in Tokyo and the Diaoyu in Beijing, as Japanese sovereign territory but since 2014 has said it would be obliged to defend them if attacked under the Japan-US security treaty.
“In case anyone was in doubt, the US is fully committed to the defence of Japan, which includes the Senkaku Islands. And formations of Chinese coast guard ships won’t change that,” US ambassador to Japan George Glass said on X.
Despite the Chinese measures, there were no particular changes in China’s export control measures on rare earths and other materials, Japan’s Trade Minister Ryosei Akazawa said.
Japan is heavily dependent on the minerals for everything from electronics to cars.
The heads of Japan’s three business federations met with Takaichi late on Monday and urged dialogue to resolve the diplomatic tensions.
“Political stability is a prerequisite for economic exchange,” Yoshinobu Tsutsui, chairman of Japan’s biggest business lobby Keidanren, told reporters after the meeting, according to media reports.
While Japan has made de-escalatory efforts, its refusal to retract the statements has not mollified Beijing, Cornell University’s China foreign policy expert Allen Carlson said.
“As a result, the two countries now stand on a knife’s edge.”
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/china-suspends-japanese-films-taiwan-sanae-takaichi-5473601
