China warns Japan over ‘extremely dangerous’ missile deployment plan near Taiwan
ANKARA
China on Wednesday warned Japan over its reported plan to deploy missiles on Yonaguni Island near Taiwan, calling it “an extremely dangerous move,” according to state-run Global Times.
At a news conference, Chinese State Council Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Peng Qing’en said that Japan’s deployment of offensive weapons in areas adjacent to Taiwan “is an extremely dangerous move” which is “deliberately creating regional tensions and provoking military confrontation.”
“The (1945) Potsdam Proclamation explicitly prohibits Japan from rearming, and Japan’s pacifist constitution also establishes the principle of an exclusively defense-oriented policy,” Peng told reporters.
Peng said that Taiwan is “China’s Taiwan,” and that they will “never allow external forces to interfere in the Taiwan region of China,” nor will they allow the “resurgence of Japanese militarism.”
On Monday, China also protested Japan’s reported plan to deploy missiles on Yonaguni Island near Taiwan, saying that the step is a “deliberate move” that raises regional tensions already heightened by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s recent remarks on Taiwan.
China’s reactions came after a Bloomberg report quoted Japan’s Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi as saying Sunday that plans to deploy missiles on the southern island of Yonaguni, about 110 kilometers (68.3 miles) from Taiwan, would proceed.
Tensions between the two countries rose earlier this month after Takaichi said any Chinese attack on Taiwan could legally amount to a “survival-threatening situation,” potentially allowing Japan to “exercise the right of collective self-defense.”
China sharply criticized the remarks, and hundreds of thousands of Chinese tourists reportedly canceled trips to Japan. Tokyo said that Beijing imposed a ban on Japanese seafood imports and also postponed a trilateral culture ministers’ meeting with Japan and South Korea — a move that Tokyo criticized.
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