First there was the ascendancy of Sanae Takaichi—not good, from the perspective of the CCP, since she is known to be a hardliner about China.
Then there was the new Japanese prime minister’s October 31 meeting with Xi Jinping, in which she reportedly did not beat around the bush. Sanae Takaichi said afterward that she “ ‘frankly’ expressed concerns” about many issues during her time with Xi.
“Those include China’s activities in the East China Sea—a reference to its military vessels sailing through waters around Japan’s southern island prefecture of Okinawa—export controls on rare earths and the safety of Japanese citizens living in the country. She also urged China to resume imports of Japanese seafood and beef….
“She told Xi that favorable cross-strait relations are important for the region’s safety and security, a reference to the Taiwan Strait that geographically separates the Chinese mainland and Taiwan. She also expressed ‘serious concerns’ over Hong Kong and Xinjiang…. Chinese officials have questioned Japan’s moves to boost its defense capabilities, including increasing its defense budget and easing restrictions on arms exports.”
Former Taiwanese official
Takaichi’s meeting with an ex-official of the Republic of China is giving the CCP ulcers as well. She had offered warm words of support for Taiwan even before being formally elected as prime minister. Now Beijing is blasting her for hobnobbing with Lin Hsin-i (shown above, left), former ROC minister of economic affairs and former vice premier, during the APEC summit in South Korea.
According to the PRC foreign ministry, Takaichi morally erred by meeting with “personnel from the authorities of China’s Taiwan region [and hyping] it on social media.” The ministry here makes an erroneous reference to an independent country, the Republic of China, often called by the name of its biggest part, Taiwan. The PRC has never ruled the ROC, whose government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing the civil war with the Chinese Communist Party. So there isn’t any “China’s Taiwan region.”
“Those actions severely violated the one-China principle, the spirit of the four political documents between China and Japan, and basic norms of international relations, and sent a gravely wrong signal to the ‘Taiwan independence’ forces,” the PRC foreign ministry moaned. “Those actions are egregious in nature and impact. China expresses its firm opposition and has made serious demarches and protests to Japan.”
The penance that the commies want Japan to perform for chatting with somebody from somewhere is the usual laundry list. Japan should “reflect on and address its wrongdoings, take concrete measures to undo the negative impact, stop interfering in China’s internal affairs, and act on its statement of building a constructive and stable China-Japan relationship fit for the new era.” The new era that the PRC is hyping seems to be one in which everybody unfailingly obeys the PRC.
