Japan will suffer a "crushing defeat" by the Chinese military if it tries to use force to intervene over Taiwan, China's defence ministry warns, ramping up the rhetoric over Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's remarks about the island.

Takaichi sparked a diplomatic row with Beijing with comments 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 embassy in Beijing to Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong.

Chinese Defence Ministry spokesperson Jiang Bin said that Takaichi's words were

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