From the Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece, Global Times, July7:
Japan will dig its own grave if it crosses red line of Taiwan question
"If China invades Taiwan, Tokyo may interpret the move as a 'threat to Japan's survival' and deploy the Self-Defense Forces to exercise collective self-defense," Nikkei Asia quoted Japanese Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso as reporting on Tuesday.
Japan has gone too far and stretched its hands too long. Japan has no right to dictate issues related to China's internal affairs. Making inflammatory comments on the Taiwan question shows that Japan is following US' policy of using the island as an important bridgehead to contain China. Such remarks from a Japanese politician made shortly before the memorial day of July 7 Incident of 1937, when Japan invaded China, proves that Japan's colonial ideology, especially toward the island of Taiwan, has not disappeared for a single day. Yet Japan needs to remember that its survival depends on whether Japan understands its situation correctly - not on how China is prepared to resolve the Taiwan question.
Such a view toward the Taiwan question as a core interest of Japan is not uncommon. For the hawks in Japan, especially the extreme right wings, they are actually focused on two issues, one is the Diaoyu Islands, and the other is the island of Taiwan. If Taiwan secedes from China, China's overall comprehensive strength will be greatly weakened. Japan does not want to see a strong China nearby. So it is more in Japan's practical interest, especially of certain politicians, to separate the island from China.
But it needs to be clarified that, first of all, Japan does not dare to confront China alone. If Japan involves itself in the Taiwan question militarily, it will be Japan digging its own grave. Japan's military capability is completely restrained by the US and does not have an independent combat capability. It is easy for the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to paralyze the attack capability of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces. Japan itself is powerless against the Chinese military.However, if Japan cooperates with the US to carry out military actions against China, especially over the island of Taiwan or Diaoyu Islands, Beijing will view the move as engaging in a military conflict with China. In this sense, Japan will become the target of China's military strike. This will endanger Japan's survival....
....MORE
As most everyone knows, the so-called media in China does not print a single word that does not align with the Party line, upon pain of death, and worse. So we can be sure these are Xi's sentiments.
Xi Jinping risks emulating another Chinese autocrat, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Hongwu. As retold in a different context a few months ago:
....China's defiance of any norms and blithe, there is no other word for it—lying—as it pursues its goals is one of the major facts of life in the world today. But there is a history of Chinese arrogance.
For 100 years, from the Chinese/Mongol attempts to conquer Japan in 1274 and 1281 to the demands of the founder of the Ming Dynasty from 1369 to 1382 that Japan pay tribute:
...The threat of military force was evident in Ming China’s effort to bring Japan into the tribute system. Japan’s Prince Kanenaga imprisoned and executed a number of the Chinese envoys that Emperor Hongwu had sent in 1369 to demand tribute, apparently angered at the condescending tone of the diplomatic letter denoting Chinese superiority. When the Ming court threatened invasion, the Japanese reminded it of the Mongols’ failed attempts in 1281 to conquer Japan. A letter Kanenaga sent in 1382 explicitly denied the legitimacy of Chinese dominance: ‘Now the world is the world’s world; it does not belong to a single ruler … . I hear that China has troops able to fight a war, but my small country also has plans of defence … . How could we kneel to and acknowledge Chinese overlordship!’88 ...
—Oxford Journals' Chinese Journal of International Politics, Summer 2012
To put it more bluntly, the practice of pretending and paying tribute is stupid. Or, as a somewhat out-of-favor writer put it, regarding the Viking raids on England:
....It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation,
To puff and look important and to say: –
"Though we know we should defeat you,
we have not the time to meet you.
And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
- Japan's Responses In the Event Of A Chinese Attack On Taiwan
- "China launches ‘gray-zone’ warfare to subdue Taiwan"
- "Butterfly Effect: China’s Real Target Is Taiwan"
- As Concern Grows Over China’s Invasion Threat To Taiwan the U.S. Military Wants TSMC To Move Some Chip Capacity
- "China Threatens a Bold Grab for Japanese Territory This Month. Who's Next?"
