China warns Japan of decisive response after Takaichi’s landslide win

Yesterday 14:20

By: Dakir Madiha

China warns Japan of decisive response after Takaichi’s landslide win

China issued a sharp warning to Japan on Monday, urging Tokyo to retract comments made in November by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi about the possibility of military involvement over Taiwan, as bilateral tensions escalated following her decisive election victory.

Speaking at a regular press briefing on February 9, foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said that if “far-right forces in Japan misjudge the situation and act recklessly, they will inevitably face resistance from the Japanese people and a determined response from the international community.” He added that Japan must demonstrate “basic sincerity” in safeguarding the political foundations of Sino-Japanese relations through concrete actions.

The statement came a day after Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party secured a historic landslide in Japan’s lower house elections, winning 316 of 465 seats. The result delivered a two-thirds supermajority and marked the strongest showing by a single party since World War Two, according to NHK. The outcome represented a dramatic reversal for the LDP, which had fallen into minority status after losing 58 seats in 2024.

Japanese markets reacted positively, with the Nikkei 225 rising in early trading on Monday as investors interpreted the result as voter endorsement of Takaichi’s expansionary fiscal agenda.

Analysts said the strengthened mandate was likely to reinforce Takaichi’s hardline stance on defense and policy toward China. David Boling, a director at consulting firm Asia Group, told Reuters that Beijing was unlikely to welcome her victory, adding that China now faced the reality that Takaichi was firmly in power and efforts to fully marginalize her leadership had failed.

The current diplomatic crisis traces back to remarks Takaichi made in parliament in November, when she said a Chinese attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” that would justify a Japanese military response. China’s foreign minister Wang Yi at the time described the comments as “shocking,” accusing Japan of crossing a red line.

Since then, Beijing has rolled out a series of retaliatory measures. Chinese authorities discouraged their citizens from traveling to Japan on security grounds, a move that led to the cancellation of about 500,000 airline tickets and a 45 percent year-on-year drop in Chinese visitors in December. China also reinstated a ban on Japanese seafood imports and tightened controls on exports of rare earth materials vital to Japan’s defense and electronics industries.

Tensions took on a military dimension in early December, when Chinese J-15 fighter jets operating from the aircraft carrier Liaoning locked fire-control radar onto Japanese F-15s near Okinawa. The incident prompted Tokyo to summon China’s ambassador, with Japan’s defense ministry calling the radar lock-on dangerous and deeply regrettable.

Despite months of sustained pressure from Beijing, the election result suggested a consolidation of domestic support behind Takaichi. Tim Kanning, Tokyo correspondent for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, said Chinese pressure had the effect of uniting the country rather than weakening the government.