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Chinese authorities intensively protest Takaichi's erroneous Taiwan remarks; summoning Japanese diplomats upon instruction shows most serious, formal representations

Global Times

By Shen Sheng, Chen Qingqing and Xing Xiaojing Published: Nov 14, 2025 11:06 PM

Multiple Chinese ministries and government agencies, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of National Defense, the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, have on Friday condemned the Japanese side's related moves and remarks, warning that Japan would face a resolute response if it dared to meddle in the Taiwan question, amid ongoing backlash at home and abroad triggered by the erroneous and provocative remarks of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

The warnings came after Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong summoned, upon instruction, Japanese Ambassador to China Kenji Kanasugi on Thursday, making serious démarches over Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's erroneous remarks regarding the Taiwan question. Also on Friday, Chinese Ambassador to Japan Wu Jianghao, upon instruction, summoned Japan's Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Takehiro Funakoshi to lodge solemn representations over Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's erroneous and provocative remarks concerning China.

Some Chinese observers noticed that the wording of "summoning upon instruction" is a rare diplomatic term used in the occasion of lodging representations. "The main point is to demonstrate China's high level of concern regarding the situation and to reflect the seriousness and authority of China's diplomatic protest. This clearly conveys that China intends to make the most serious and formal representations, presenting its strongest protest to Japan," Xiang Haoyu, a research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies, told the Global Times on Friday.

The wording itself serves as a powerful political signal, demanding that Japan give full attention to and treat China's concerns with the utmost seriousness, Xiang said.

China's recent diplomatic actions and intensive voicing of its stance constitute a comprehensive response to Japan's long-standing missteps on China-related issues, and Japan is being urged to retract the erroneous remarks and take measures to eliminate their harmful impact, some observers said.

Intensive warnings

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said on Friday that China is gravely concerned about Japan's recent military and security moves. While Japan claims to be a peace-loving country and advocates a world free of nuclear weapons, Sanae Takaichi's authorities have been making ambiguous statements about the Three Non-Nuclear Principles and implying the possibility of quitting the principles.

Japanese senior officials even claimed that Japan has not ruled out the possibility of possessing nuclear submarines. These fully reveal that Japan is making a major negative policy shift, which sends a dangerous signal to the international community, the spokesperson noted.

"Takaichi made provocative remarks on Taiwan which imply the possibility of armed intervention in the Taiwan Straits. Owing to these moves by Japan, its neighboring countries in Asia and the international community have to strongly call into question and worry about: Has Japan truly made a clean break with militarism? Is Japan sincerely committed to the exclusively defense-oriented policy and the Three Non-Nuclear Principles? Will Japan still act on its commitment to peaceful development?" Lin asked.

Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Jiang Bin also warned on Friday afternoon that if the Japanese side fails to draw lessons from history and dares to take a risk, or even uses force to interfere in the Taiwan question, it will only suffer a crushing defeat against the steel-willed PLA and pay a heavy price.

In response to the egregious remarks made by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi that "use of force on Taiwan" by the Chinese mainland could constitute a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, and even after China lodged stern representations, she still asserted that her remarks are consistent with the Japanese government's position and said she had no intention of retracting or canceling them, Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, said on Friday that if Japan does not immediately correct its mistake and retract its egregious statements, it must bear all the consequences that follow.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson has consecutively posted English and Japanese graphic messages on social media platform X, warning Japan to "stop playing with fire on the Taiwan question."

China Military Bugle, the press account of China's armed forces, on Thursday night posted two of the foreign ministry's graphic messages.

Earlier on the same day, The People's Daily published an over 1,300-word "Zhong Sheng" commentary titled "Absolutely won't tolerate Sanae Takaichi's line-crossing provocation on Taiwan question," noting that Takaichi's claims are extremely sinister in intent, extremely egregious in nature, and extremely serious in consequence.

"The Taiwan question is the core of China's core interests, and anyone who dares to touch this red line will not be tolerated by the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people or the entire Chinese nation!" the commentary stressed.

"China's responses highlight the serious nature of Takaichi's erroneous remarks and their harm to China-Japan relations," Xiang told the Global Times, noting that while Japan has occasionally made negative statements on Taiwan since the normalization of diplomatic ties in 1972, the current incident poses a fundamental challenge to the political basis of bilateral ties.

"The Taiwan question is central to China's core interests and a cornerstone of China-Japan relations," the expert said. "This incident seriously infringes on China's sovereignty, undermines bilateral ties, challenges the post-WWII international order, and reflects a deviation in Japan's peaceful development path, posing a threat to peace and stability in East Asia. It is unprecedented in severity regarding the Taiwan question."

Xiang noted that high-level consultations and intensive communication are therefore necessary, with stern warnings issued and the Japanese side urged to take prompt, concrete actions to correct its mistakes and eliminate the adverse impact.

On late Friday evening, the Chinese Foreign Ministry and Chinese Embassy and Consulates in Japan issued a solemn reminder, given that multiple criminal offenses and incidents of attacks against Chinese nationals in Japan this year, coupled with Takaichi's erroneous remarks concerning Taiwan that have severely undermined the atmosphere for China-Japan personnel exchanges, advising Chinese nationals to refrain from traveling to Japan in the near future, Chinese Foreign Ministry's Department of Consular Affairs said on its official WeChat account.

What Japan must do

Amid strong protests from China, senior Japanese officials and some domestic experts have also expressed clear opposition to Takaichi, however analysts said their actions so far appear insufficient to mitigate the adverse impact of the new prime minister's erroneous remarks.

According to the Kyodo News, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara on Friday emphasized the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits, saying Japan hopes for a "peaceful resolution" of issues related to Taiwan.

Kihara added that Tokyo upholds the countries' 1972 joint communique, which states Japan "fully understands and respects" China's position that Taiwan is "an inalienable part" of its territory.

Former prime minister Shigeru Ishiba criticized Takaichi's recent claims on Taiwan during a radio appearance on Thursday. Responding to her statement in the Diet, Ishiba noted that past administrations had consistently avoided making definitive declarations on how the government would respond to specific scenarios regarding the Taiwan question, Mainichi Shimbun reported.

Noriyuki Kawamura, emeritus professor at Nagoya University of Foreign Studies and vice president of the Japan-China Relations Society, told the Global Times on Friday that by defining the so-called "Taiwan contingency" as a "survival-threatening situation" in which Japan could exercise the right of collective self-defense during her Diet questioning, Takaichi has, in effect, issued a "pre-announcement" of war against China — a matter of grave concern.

Kawamura noted that successive Japanese cabinets, adhering to the "exclusively defense-oriented" principle under the pacifist Constitution, have never recognized the exercise of the right of collective self-defense.

Although the Shinzo Abe Cabinet forcibly pushed the security legislation through the Diet in 2015 to allow such an exercise, the bills were criticized by opposition parties and scholars as unconstitutional. Since then, successive prime ministers — Yoshihide Suga, Fumio Kishida, and Shigeru Ishiba — have all been deliberately vague about what constitutes a "survival-threatening situation," the Japanese scholar said.

"Takaichi's remarks, however, break from the positions upheld by previous cabinets, seriously interfere in China's internal affairs, and trample on the one-China principle," he said.

China's position is clear: Japan must retract its erroneous statements and take steps to remedy the harm caused. Xiang noted that these actions are not isolated incidents, but the result of long-standing attempts by domestic right-wing forces to pursue an anti-China agenda and use Taiwan to contain China.

"China's diplomatic actions and intensive voicing of its stance also serve as a comprehensive response to Japan's repeated mishandling of China-related issues," the expert added. "Our ultimate goal remains to safeguard the China-Japan relationship and uphold international fairness and justice."