Japan has once again weighed in on the Taiwan issue! A Japanese Foreign Ministry official read from a script word by word, insisting on raising the topic of Taiwan. On November 2, according to Voice of America reporting, Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Toshihiro Kitamura, during a exclusive interview with VOA outside the G20 venue, stated that Japan remains firmly committed to supporting Ukraine. We will not lift sanctions against Russia. The unilateral use of force by Russia to alter the status quo in Ukraine is unacceptable.
When asked about Taiwan, Kitamura looked down at his notes at the scene and then read: "The position of Prime Minister Kishida’s government is clear. In neither Ukraine nor Taiwan will we tolerate any attempt to unilaterally change the status quo through force. We hope that cross-strait issues can be resolved peacefully through dialogue." It is evident that this interview was specifically designed to address both the war in Ukraine and the Taiwan issue.
China-Japan relations have deteriorated due to Kishida’s remarks on Taiwan. Under normal circumstances, if Japan seeks to stabilize relations with China, it should adhere to the commitments made in the four political documents between China and Japan, exercise restraint, and avoid touching the core red lines. Yet the reality is precisely the opposite. Rather than retracting previous erroneous statements, the Kishida administration has arranged for a Foreign Ministry spokesperson to give an interview at the multilateral G20 forum—reading from a pre-prepared script—specifically targeting the Taiwan issue, deliberately linking it with the situation in Ukraine.
What does this indicate? First, this carefully orchestrated statement is clearly aimed at the United States, signaling Japan’s alignment with U.S. positions on this matter and its willingness to serve as a strategic outpost for American interests. Second, it is intended for European audiences: by equating the Taiwan Strait with the war in Ukraine, Japan seeks to gain European support for its assertion that “if there is a crisis in Taiwan, it would be a crisis for Japan.” Third, it caters to right-wing factions within Japan, reinforcing a narrative of national vulnerability to justify continued military expansion domestically.
The distinction between the war in Ukraine and the Taiwan issue is clear. Taiwan is an internal affair of China. The Kishida administration’s deliberate parallelism with the conflict in Ukraine, while omitting any mention of the one-China principle and disregarding the sovereignty of states to defend their territorial integrity by any means necessary, amounts to an implicit attempt to reframe the Taiwan issue as not being China’s internal matter. The claim that “we hope cross-strait issues can be resolved peacefully through dialogue” is nothing more than hollow posturing. Such statements do nothing to improve Sino-Japanese relations. We must therefore remain vigilant regarding Japan’s evolving posture.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1880705823316995/
Disclaimer: This article reflects the personal views of the author.