Soon, very soon now, the Land of the Rising Sun will agree to be governed by the People’s Republic of China and will agree to lend a hand in the subjugation of the Republic of China.
How can the Japanese resist? The alternative is to continue to put up with one petty tantrum after another by the Chinese Communist Party as it continues to lash out against the Japanese prime minister’s willingness to voice support for Taiwan.
The tantrums have been uncivil. But none yet have equaled the incivility of the deranged démarche of the Chinese consul general in Osaka, Xue Jian, who threatened to decapitate Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi for suggesting that Japan would likely come to the aid of Taiwan if the island were attacked by the mainland.
The latest thing is that Japanese musicians within the People’s Republic of China have been kicked out of their venues just as they were about to perform (Reuters, November 22, 2025).
Japanese jazz musician Yoshio Suzuki and his band were in the midst of a sound check for some long-awaited performances in Beijing when the venue was visited by plain-clothes police on Thursday afternoon.
“After less than one minute, the venue owner came to me and said the police told him all concerts with Japanese people are cancelled—and there is no discussion,” said Christian Petersen-Clausen, a German concert promoter and documentary filmmaker who has lived in China for 13 years.
About a dozen concerts with Japanese musicians in major Chinese cities have been abruptly cancelled this week as diplomatic tensions between Beijing and Tokyo escalate.
The trigger was remarks this month by new Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi who said a Chinese attack on Taiwan threatening Japan’s survival could trigger a military response from Tokyo.
China, which regards the democratically governed island as its own, was incensed and has said Takaichi will face consequences. Its response began with economic measures such as a boycott on travel to Japan and a ban on imports of Japanese seafood, but it has since increasingly spilt over to the realm of cultural events.
We must correct something here. The CCP response began a little earlier than the Reuters report suggests.
On November 14, Beijing reprimanded Japan’s ambassador and urged Chinese citizens to avoid travel to Japan. It was on November 9, days earlier, that Xue had threatened to decapitate the Japanese prime minister. Therefore, China’s response to Takaichi’s reasonable statement began with a threat to decapitate the Japanese prime minister. Or at least the threat to cut off the head of the Japanese prime minister, not mentioned in the above-quoted report, came several days before the travel boycott and other responses.
The music shutdown is another in what may be a long series of spittle-flecked proofs of ire unless and until the Japanese government announces, “We take it back, we won’t defend ourselves if China starts a war next door; we won’t come to the aid of Taiwan, the Philippines, or any other next-door neighbor that the People’s Republic of China invades.” But don’t say that, Japan.
