Posted on 11/17/2025 2:28:19 PM PST by lasereye
When Japan’s newly promoted Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, the nation’s first female leader, first met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, she said she wanted to pursue a “mutually beneficial” relationship as well as to “deepen their personal ties.”
“As Japan and China are important partners, the long-term, stable and healthy development of bilateral ties aligns with the common expectations of both our peoples as well as the international community,” Xi said.
But just two weeks later, the neighboring countries have fallen into a diplomatic spat that neither side seems eager to climb out from.
In Nov. 7 parliamentary remarks, Takaichi appeared to veer from Japan’s policy of “strategic ambiguity” towards the self-governed island of Taiwan, suggesting that an attack on Taiwan could amount to a “survival-threatening situation” that would permit Japan to exercise collective self-defense.
Her remarks drew ire from China, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory and maintains its right to take control of it one day, including by force. Facing criticisms and warnings from Beijing, Takaichi, who is widely seen as a China hawk, has refused to retract her remarks, although she noted they were “hypothetical” and that she would refrain from making similar comments in future.
China has now turned to wield the power of its citizens’ wallets to ramp up pressure on Japan. China’s embassy in Japan issued a travel advisory for Japan to its citizens.
“Recently, Japanese leaders have openly made explicit provocative remarks regarding Taiwan, severely worsening the atmosphere for exchanges between Chinese and Japanese people and posing significant risks to the personal and life safety of Chinese citizens in Japan,” China’s embassy in Japan said in a statement. “The Ministry of Culture and Tourism solemnly reminds Chinese tourists to avoid traveling to Japan in the near future.”
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
Takaichi has been described as holding hard-line conservative and Japanese nationalist views, citing former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher as a role model and deeply influential on her personal political beliefs. Like Thatcher, she is called the "Iron Lady". Takaichi is a member of Nippon Kaigi, a far-right ultraconservative organisation that argues for a reinterpretation of Japanese history amongst ultranationalist lines.
Taro Kono, another LDP minister and member of the House of Representatives, has said that Takaichi is on the far right of the political spectrum within the LDP. Takaichi has been described as "far-right" by Deutsche Welle and the South China Morning Post, and various sources including Time magazine, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Guardian, Politico, Foreign Policy and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) have described her as "ultraconservative".
We always need to translate what "far-right", "ultranationalist" and "ultraconservative" actually mean when used by the media. It just means they're normal people.
An article at Bloomberg speculates that China might embargo rare earth minerals from Japan if Takaichi doesn't back down. That could cause them serious problems. President Trump has had positive things to say about Takaichi. I think he will have her back. President Trump has prioritized decreasing our reliance on rare earths.
Xi will take that female, wrap her up like a present, and she won’t even know what happened...
If you’ve ever mentioned his alcohol problem to a man who is in deep denial that he has an alcohol problem, you’ll recognize Zi’s reaction. It’s similar to the family secrets exposed response. Over the top, crazy. The idea is to force you not only to acknowledge that you’re wrong, but to openly agree that there’s no alcohol problem. This type of exposure is an existential threat. They can’t let it pass because it strikes at the core of their existence.
Growing up, I had a sister who was crazy. So, any threat, and she saw them everywhere as any disagreement was a threat, would cause her to go into hyperaggressive mode. Nobody could stand the tantrums. She would die before backing down. You either went nuclear back, which probably would have required killing her, or you gave in. My parents gave in. It’s like living with a sweating stick of dynamite.
The world is living with China and China is a sweating stick of dynamite.
And you are correct. She is Japan First, which is where she should be.
Not this time.
Reminder: China has over $1 trillion in treasury debt, owned by American citizens, that China hasn't paid a penny on since they went communist. Ostensibly, the reason is that they claimed that the communists' victory in the China Civil War made them a new country, and that the outgoing Chinese leaders went to Taiwan. So Americans should get our money back from Taiwan.
So out of one side of their mouths, China says Taiwan is a different country. But out the other side of their mouths, they said Taiwan is part of China.
Sweating sticks of dynamite are going to blow sometime. Best not to kiss a$$ and have it blow up in your face.
Why not? Xi isn’t afraid of females from what I can tell.
Japan is more than happy to have fewer badly-behaving tourists from China visiting.
The new leader of Japan isn’t afraid of him either.
Nobody wants to hear it, but the sad fact is this:
The opposition to the TPP was a self-inflicted wound.
It boxed China out.
People laud the USMCA, but the reality is that the USMCA was actually NAFTA with the trilateral agreements from the broader TPP (the TPP superseded NAFTA). Hey, credit to Trump - surprised me that Mexico and Canada went along with them WITHOUT the TPP, but so be it.
Water under the bridge now... but if you want to blunt China? The TPP was the way to do it.
10 years ago, lots of people were happy to see the TPP (at least, US participation in it) die. But - whether you like it or not? The sad fact that is that the *happiest* people on the planet were the CCP overlords.
I’m not saying it was perfect, but the basic fact is that the TPP (with the US as a signer) would have *really* put the squeeze on China. It would have locked China out of cross-border shenanigans, but a *serious* crimp on their IP theft, and basically made it a ‘Pacific world’ vs China scenario.
Like I said, water under the bridge at this point...
Sweating sticks of dynamite need to be carefully disposed of. That’s not just Zi. It’s the entire CCP. The reason they all act that way is their one claim to legitimacy is they increased everyone’s wealth. That is no longer true. There just a few miles away is the same people, but with a different style of government and those people are combatively very wealthy. The CCP is afraid their citizens will look across the strait and decide that the difference is having the CCP instead of representative government. That is an existential threat that can’t be allowed to continue as the economy of China gets worse and worse.
Communist governments only exist by stealing the wealth of their neighbors.
Takaichi's mentor was Shinzo Abe who several years ago proposed restoring the Emperor as the official head of state.
I was looking forward to the Chrysanthemums being fitted to Japanese warships, restoring the Imperial Japanese Navy. That would certainly make some butts pucker in Beijing.
The US should simply indicate to China quietly that if it doesn't stop being so aggressive, it's Tridents for everyone: SK, Japan, Australia and Taiwan.
I was looking forward to the Chrysanthemums being fitted to Japanese warships, restoring the Imperial Japanese Navy. That would certainly make some butts pucker in Beijing.
Japan has two new aircraft carriers of their own. They have the names of two prominent Japanese aircraft carriers from WWII. They are the JS Kaga and the JS Izumo.
Hopefully.
“Tora! Tora! Tora!”
Absolutely true. Chinese tourists from China are the rudest in the world. They're getting kicked out of countries everywhere they go. In downtown SF, they elbow their way onto buses and subway trains by skipping the lines of patient riders, chatter away in Mandarin while holding bags of smelly food. Completely different than Chinese-American citizens who are like regular American citizens from different ethnic groups.
Chinese communists are taught to hate Japanese and display rudeness in Japan, while Japanese tourists in China display civility.
If only the Japanese were civil in 1937, we wouldn’t be in this mess.
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