China recommends to its citizens avoid traveling to Japanin the midst of a dispute over Taiwan, since Tokyo mentioned a possible Japanese military intervention to defend the island – claimed by Beijing – in case of attack. The Japanese Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi; declared before Parliament on November 7 that armed attacks against Taiwan could justify sending Japanese troops to defend the island, under the “collective self-defense” provided for by a Japanese law adopted in 2015.
If an emergency situation in Taiwan involves “the deployment of warships and use of force“This could constitute a threat to the survival of Japan,” said the conservative prime minister, without explicitly citing China. “We must consider the worst scenario,” she added.
On Friday night, the Chinese embassy in Tokyo called these statements “openly provocative towards Taiwan“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as the Chinese embassy and consulates in Japan, solemnly remind Chinese citizens to avoid traveling to Japan in the near future,” adds its statement published on social networks, mentioning “important risks” to their safety.
Consequently, the main Chinese airlines (Air China, China Southern and China Eastern) have announced this Saturday that they would offer their clients the full refund of your flights to Japan, as well as free itinerary change, between Saturday and December 31.
Ambassadors summoned
According to its own rules, Japan can only carry out military intervention under certain conditions, in particular in case of existential threat. And Taiwan is barely a hundred kilometers from a Japanese island, despite the fact that Beijing claims its sovereignty. China has threatened to use force to bring it under its control. The issue of Taiwan is especially sensitive between Beijing and Tokyo – two important allies in economic matters – because Japan took control of the island in 1895 at the expense of the Chinese Empire, before returning it in 1945 to the Chinese government of the time.
After the statements of Takaichiconsidered “extremely serious“Beijing announced on Friday that it had summoned Japan’s ambassador. This country, for its part, did the same with China’s ambassador, after a threat considered “extremely inappropriate“by the Chinese Consul General in Osaka, Xue Jian. In a later deleted message from X, he had threatened to “cut off that dirty head without the slightest hesitation,” citing an article about Takaichi’s intervention.
Tokyo stated on Friday that its position on Taiwan remained “unchanged” and called for “peace and stability.” This Saturday, after China’s warning to its citizens, the secretary general of the Japanese government, Minoru Kihara, has regretted a recommendation “in contradiction with the promotion of a strategic relationship and mutually beneficial” between Tokyo and Beijing, according to the Jiji Press agency.
