BEIJING: China said on Friday (Nov 14) it summoned the Japanese ambassador over remarks the country’s new prime minister made about Taiwan.
Last week, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told Japan’s parliament that armed attacks on Taiwan could warrant sending troops to support the island under “collective self-defence”.
If an emergency in Taiwan entails “battleships and the use of force, then that could constitute a situation threatening the survival (of Japan), any way you slice it”, Takaichi told parliament.
She later said her remarks were hypothetical and that she would refrain from making similar comments in parliament again.
However, she said her comments were in line with the Japanese government’s position and she would not retract them, after opposition lawmaker Oogushi Hiroshi suggested she revise her remark.
Beijing insists Taiwan is part of its territory and has not ruled out the use of force to seize control of the self-governing island.
Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong summoned the Japanese ambassador to China Kenji Kanasugi on Thursday, according to a statement published on Friday on Beijing’s foreign ministry website.
He made “serious demarches over Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s erroneous remarks regarding China”, the statement added.
Source: CNA
