Japanese seafood caught up in escalating diplomatic dispute with China

China has indicated it will ban all imports of Japanese seafood, two government officials in Tokyo said, in what appears to be the latest salvo in an escalating diplomatic dispute between Asia’s top two economies.

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Tensions between the two countries ignited after new Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said this month that a Chinese attack on Taiwan threatening Japan’s survival could trigger a military response.

China has demanded she retract the remarks and urged its citizens not to travel to Japan, resulting in mass cancellations that could deal a sizable blow to the world’s fourth-largest economy.

Asked about the seafood restrictions at a press conference, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said: “Under the current circumstances, even if Japanese seafood were to be exported to China, it would find no market.”

She reiterated that if Takaichi did not retract her remarks, China would have to take “stern and resolute” countermeasures.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told reporters Tokyo had not received any official notification from the Chinese government about a ban on seafood.

Beijing just months ago partially eased restrictions on Japanese seafood that had been imposed due to Tokyo’s decision two years ago to release treated wastewater from its Fukushima power plant, the site of a 2011 nuclear meltdown that followed a massive earthquake and tsunami.