•  Beijing slams Japanese premier’s remarks as ‘wrongful, dangerous’ move to separate Taiwan from China
• Tokyo protests Chinese diplomat’s ‘extremely inappropriate’ comments over premier’s Taiwan statement
• Exchange follows Takaichi’s warning that any Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger Japan’s right to collective self-defense

ISTANBUL 

China and Japan exchanged sharp protests Monday over Taiwan after a Chinese diplomat posted threatening remarks online and Tokyo’s premier warned that any military action by Beijing could trigger Japan’s right to collective self-defense.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Friday that any Chinese military move against Taiwan, including a naval blockade, could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” allowing Japan to “exercise its right to collective self-defense.”

Beijing, which regards Taiwan as its “breakaway province,” denounced the remarks as a “wrongful and dangerous” attempt to separate the island from China.

The dispute escalated after Xue Jian, China’s consul general in Osaka, shared a post on US social media company X, citing a news article about Takaichi’s comments and saying to “cut off a dirty neck without a moment of hesitation.”

"Are you ready for that?" the post read, according to the Kyodo News.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said Tokyo lodged a formal protest with Beijing on Sunday, calling the post “extremely inappropriate for a Chinese diplomatic mission head.”

“The intention of the message was unclear,” Kihara told reporters, adding that Japan’s Foreign Ministry and Embassy in Beijing had asked for its deletion and that some measures were already taken by Sunday night.

China responded with its own protest, accusing Japan of interference in its internal affairs.

“Takaichi’s wrongful and dangerous remarks concerning Taiwan grossly interfere in China’s internal affairs,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a briefing in Beijing.

“China strongly urges Japan to take a hard look at its historical responsibilities on the Taiwan question,” Lin said. “Abide by the one-China principle and the principles in the four political documents between the two countries, stop making provocations and crossing red lines, and stop sending wrong signals to Taiwan independence separatist forces.”

Lin said the consul’s post was “a response to the wrongful and dangerous remarks that attempt to separate Taiwan from China and peddle military intervention in the Taiwan Strait.”

Takaichi on Monday “denied her intention” to retract her earlier statement, telling lawmakers she spoke “under the assumption of a worst-case scenario.”

“It is in line with conventional government views,” she said, but added she “will no longer express her views assuming a particular situation” and has “no plan to make her remarks a collective view of the government.”