China Retaliates with UN Threat, Crisis Damages Trade and Culture

BEIJING — A new hardline policy from Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi regarding Taiwan has plunged relations with Beijing into the biggest bilateral crisis in years, prompting a formal protest at the United Nations and immediate damage to economic and cultural ties.

The crisis stems from Takaichi\’s explicit abandonment of the strategic ambiguity long maintained by Japan and the U.S. when she declared on November 7 that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could legally be deemed a \”situation threatening Japan\’s survival.\” This classification allows her to deploy Japan’s military forces.

China\’s UN Ambassador Fu Cong delivered a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, accusing Takaichi, a conservative nationalist who recently took office, of committing a \”grave violation of international law\” by making such remarks.

Fu warned that any attempt by Japan at an \”armed intervention in the cross-Strait situation\” would be classified as \”an act of aggression,\” and vowed that China would \”resolutely exercise its right of self-defence under the U.N. Charter.\”

Beijing views democratically governed Taiwan as an internal matter and has not ruled out the use of force to gain control.

The tit-for-tat dispute has rapidly spilled beyond diplomatic channels, directly impacting bilateral relations:

China has stated the crisis has \”severely damaged\” trade cooperation between the two countries.

Concerts by Japanese musicians in China have been abruptly cancelled in recent days, illustrating the widening scope of the retaliation.

Fu demanded that Tokyo \”stop making provocations and crossing the line, and retract its erroneous remarks,\” which he said openly challenged China\’s core interests. The crisis is compounded by China increasingly invoking Japan\’s wartime atrocities and the basis of the post-war UN system to criticize its neighbor, adding historical weight to the current political standoff.