Tokyo, Nov. 8 (Jiji Press)--Hopes for an early Japan-China summit are fading, a year after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's parliamentary remarks regarding a possible contingency over Taiwan angered Beijing.
While Tokyo has reiterated that it will stick to the position it has maintained since the normalization of diplomatic relations between the two nations in 1972 and has waited for the situation to cool down, China has demanded a withdrawal of Takaichi's remarks. This has led to growing pessimism over the prospects for a bilateral summit on the sidelines of an international meeting to be hosted by China from Nov. 18.
Asked by reporters about her remarks on Taiwan, Takaichi on Friday repeated the same explanation she had given so far: "China is an important neighbor. We'll promote strategic and mutually beneficial ties, and build a constructive and stable relationship."
At a meeting of the Budget Committee of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of Japan's parliament, on Nov. 7, 2025, Takaichi said that a Taiwan contingency "could constitute" a so-called survival-threatening situation for Japan, in which the country can exercise its right to collective self-defense.
As the remarks apparently went beyond the line taken by previous Japanese prime ministers, the administration of Chinese President Xi Jinping, which regards Taiwan as being at the core of its interests, strongly protested them, increasing its pressure on Japan through rare earth export restrictions and calls on Chinese nationals not to visit Japan.
[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
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