BEIJING (Reuters) -Japan is trying to revive its wartime militarism and repeat the mistakes of history with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remarks on Taiwan, China’s top newspaper, People’s Daily, said on Friday.
Takaichi sparked a diplomatic row with Beijing with remarks in parliament last week that a Chinese attack on Taiwan could amount to a “survival-threatening situation” and trigger a military response from Tokyo.
China’s top diplomat in Osaka shared a news article about Takaichi’s remarks about Taiwan on X and commented “the dirty neck that sticks itself in must be cut off”, prompting a protest from Japan’s government.
Chinese state media has since weighed in with a series of vitriolic editorials and commentaries lambasting Takaichi, given lingering grievances about Japan’s wartime past and China’s extreme sensitivity about anything Taiwan related.
The ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily in its commentary, published under the pen name “Zhong Sheng”, meaning “Voice of China”, often used to give views on foreign policy, said Takaichi’s remarks were by no means an “isolated political rant”.
Japan’s right wing has been trying to break free from the constraints of their post-World War Two constitution and pursue the status of a military power, it said.
“In recent years, Japan has been racing headlong down the path of military buildup,” the paper added.
“From frequent visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, to denying the Nanjing Massacre, to vigorously hyping the ‘China threat theory,’ Takaichi’s every step follows the old footprints of historical guilt, attempting to whitewash a history of aggression and revive militarism.”
The Yasukuni shrine includes 14 Japanese wartime leaders convicted as war criminals by an Allied tribunal after World War Two among the 2.5 million war dead honoured there, and visits by Japanese politicians frequently anger China.
World War Two, and the Japanese invasion of China which preceded it in 1931, remains a source of ongoing tension between Beijing and Tokyo.
The People’s Daily said that historically, Japanese militarism has used so-called “survival crises” as pretexts for external aggression, including the 1931 Mukden Incident, the excuse Japan used to invade China’s Manchuria.
“Now that similar rhetoric is being revived, does Japan intend to repeat the mistakes of history?” the paper added.
Beijing claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own and has not ruled out using force to take control of the island. Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s claims and says only its people can decide the island’s future.
Taiwan sits just over 110 km (68 miles) from Japanese territory and the waters around the island provide a vital sea route for trade that Tokyo depends on. Japan also hosts the largest contingent of U.S. military overseas.
(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
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