Japan seeks to calm escalating spat with China over Taiwan

Japan moved on Nov 17 to tamp down an escalating diplomatic row with China over Taiwan that has prompted Beijing to urge its citizens to stay away from its East Asian neighbour.

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The dispute erupted after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told Japanese lawmakers that a Chinese attack on Taiwan threatening Japan’s survival could trigger a military response, a scenario previous administrations have avoided discussing in public so as not to provoke Beijing, which claims the self-ruled island.

Mr Masaaki Kanai, director-general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Asia and Oceania bureau, arrived in the Chinese capital to meet his counterpart Liu Jinsong, a video broadcast by the Kyodo news agency showed on Nov 17.

Mr Kanai is expected to explain that Ms Takaichi’s comment does not signal a shift in Japanese security policy and to urge China to refrain from actions that may damage ties between Tokyo and Beijing.

Taiwan sits just over 110km from Japan’s westernmost islands and near vital sea lanes that Tokyo relies on for oil and gas shipments. Japan also hosts the largest concentration of US military power outside the United States.

“Various channels of communication are open,” Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said at a regular news briefing when asked about Mr Kanai’s reported China visit.

China’s travel warning, he added, “is incompatible with the broad direction of promoting a strategic, mutually beneficial relationship”.