Breaking | Wang Yi takes advantage of world stage to blast Japanese leader’s comments on Taiwan

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Saturday took advantage of being on the world stage to blast Sanae Takaichi’s remarks that a Taiwan contingency constituted an emergency for Japan, suggesting Japan’s military involvement in a conflict in the Taiwan Strait.

“This is the first time in 80 years that a Japanese Prime Minister has uttered such words. It directly violates China’s territorial sovereignty, and it directly challenges the fact that Taiwan has been returned to China. It completely violates Japan’s commitment to China,” Wang said, adding there was “no way” for China to accept that.

He made the comments during a speech at the Munich Security Conference, which has typically served as a platform for Beijing to convey calibrated messages about its global ambitions.

Wang said Japan was still paying homage to war criminals while drawing comparison to Germany having undergone a thorough reckoning with Nazi crimes.

Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary. Most countries, including the United States and Japan, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any attempt to take the self-governed island by force and is committed to supplying it with weapons.

During his speech, Wang also called for global governance to be reformed amid global turbulence.

“We should reform and improve global governance, to set the shift of history of a private course in reforming and improving global governance. The priority is to revitalise the UN system,” he said. “The founding of the UN is an important outcome of the victory of the world anti-fascist war.”