Japan risks repeating 'wartime mistakes'

PM's remarks about Taiwan offend China

- 

Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi attends a session of the House of Councillors Budget Committee at the National Diet in Tokyo yesterday.

(AFP)

Japan is trying to revive its wartime militarism and risks repeating the mistakes of history with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remarks on Taiwan, the official newspaper of China's ruling Communist Party (CCP) said yesterday.

Ms Takaichi sparked a diplomatic row with Beijing with remarks in parliament last week that a Chinese attack on Taiwan could amount to a “survival-threatening situation” and trigger a military response from Tokyo.

China's top diplomat in Osaka shared a news article about Ms Takaichi’s remarks about Taiwan on X and commented “the dirty neck that sticks itself in must be cut off’ prompting a protest from Japan’s embassy in Beijing to Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong.

Chinese state media has since weighed in with a series of vitriolic editorials and commentaries lambasting Ms Takaichi, given lingering grievances about Japan’s wartime past and China’s extreme sensitivity about anything Taiwan related.

Ms Takaichi’s remarks were by no means an “isolated political rant,” the CCP’s People's Daily said in its commentary.