China escalates spat with Japan over Taiwan, in apparent warning to others

China demands Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi retract comments about the potential dangers posed by a war over Taiwan.

China has banned imports of Japanese seafood and movies, cancelled trade talks and a trilateral summit, restricted tourism and flights to Japan, and is threatening further countermeasures if Tokyo does not retract comments by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi about the potential dangers posed by a war over Taiwan.

The crisis, the latest in a years-long cycle of aggression and rapprochement towards Japan by China, was sparked by comments made by Ms. Takaichi in parliament that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan – long threatened by Beijing – could “constitute a situation threatening Japan’s survival,” the bar for the Japanese Self Defence Forces to engage in an ostensibly