Beijing ‘absolutely does not accept’ Japanese leader Takaichi’s apparent Taiwan climbdown

Name: Why have Takaichi’s Taiwan comments sent China-Japan ties into a tailspin?
Uploaded: 2025-12-04T10:07:52.000Z
Duration: 4 min 47 s
Description: Why have Takaichi’s Taiwan comments sent China-Japan ties into a tailspin?

Takaichi ‘still prevaricating’ by citing 1972 joint communique, Beijing says, urges that she retract wrong remarks ‘accurately and fully’

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Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments in November about a Taiwan contingency have triggered a diplomatic crisis with Beijing. Photo: EPA

Orange Wang

Published: 6:07pm, 4 Dec 2025Updated: 2:55am, 5 Dec 2025

Beijing has dismissed Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s latest remarks on Taiwan as “prevarication”, warning that it “absolutely does not accept” her continued refusal to retract comments made in early November.

On Wednesday, Takaichi appeared to attempt to dial down weeks of tensions when she told a parliamentary questioning session that Tokyo’s “fundamental position regarding Taiwan remains unchanged from that stated in the 1972 Japan-China Joint Communique, and there has been no change whatsoever to this position”.

However, she did not mention the contents of that document. She also did not, despite Beijing’s repeated insistence, withdraw her November 7 comment to parliament that an attack on Taiwan by the People’s Liberation Army could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan – one that could allow Tokyo to mobilise its military.

Those remarks made Takaichi the first Japanese leader since World War II to publicly link a Taiwan contingency with the possible deployment of Japan’s Self-Defence Forces, and soon sent relations with Beijing into a downward spiral.

04:47

Why have Takaichi’s Taiwan comments sent China-Japan ties into a tailspin?

The day after her purported clarification, Beijing insisted that Japan “correct its wrongdoing”, indicating that nothing short of a retraction would suffice.

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Beijing ‘absolutely does not accept’ Japanese leader Takaichi’s apparent Taiwan climbdown

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Takaichi ‘still prevaricating’ by citing 1972 joint communique, Beijing says, urges that she retract wrong remarks ‘accurately and fully’

Takaichi ‘still prevaricating’ by citing 1972 joint communique, Beijing says, urges that she retract wrong remarks ‘accurately and fully’