TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan's deputy prime minister said the country needed to defend Taiwan with the United States if the island was invaded, Kyodo news agency reported late on Monday, angering Beijing which regards Taiwan as its own territory.

China has never ruled out using force to reunite Taiwan with the mainland and recent military exercises by China and Taiwan across the Straits of Taiwan have raised tensions.

"If a major problem took place in Taiwan, it would not be too much to say that it could relate to a survival-threatening situation (for Japan)," Japan's deputy prime minister Taro Aso said at a fundraising party by a fellow Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker, according to Kyodo.

A "survival-threatening situation" refers to a situation where an armed attack against a foreign country that is in a close relationship with Japan occurs, which in turns poses a clear risk of threatening Japan's survival.

Such a situation is one of the conditions that need to be met for Japan to exercise its right of collective self-defence, or coming to the aid of an ally under attack.

"We need to think hard that Okinawa could be the next," Aso was quoted by Kyodo as saying.

China foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a regular news conference on Tuesday that Aso's remarks "harmed the political foundation of China-Japan relations", and China "resolutely opposed" them.

"No one should underestimate the Chinese people's staunch resolve, firm will, and formidable ability to defend national sovereignty," he said.

China claims a group of Japanese-controlled islets in the East China Sea. The tiny uninhabited isles, called the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, are off Japan's southern island of Okinawa.

Aso, asked about Japan's stance on the cross-strait issue at a news conference on Tuesday, said any contingency over Taiwan should be resolved through dialogue.

"We are closely monitoring the situation," Aso, who doubles as finance minister, told reporters.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato, when asked if Aso's Monday comment was in line with the government's stance, declined to comment, saying he was not aware of the Aso comment in detail, but reiterated Japan's official policy on the matter.

"Japan hopes the Taiwan issue will be resolved through direct dialogue between parties concerned in a peaceful manner. That has been our consistent stance," the top government spokesman said.

(Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto, Kiyoshi Takenaka; Additional reporting by Gabriel Crossley; Editing by Ritsuko Ando, Michael Perry and Muralikumar Anantharaman)

Equinix wrote: ↑Wed Jul 07, 2021 9:19 am

China is powerful but their offensive capabilities are not that great.

Arget wrote: ↑Wed Jul 07, 2021 10:17 am

Equinix wrote: ↑Wed Jul 07, 2021 9:19 am

China is powerful but their offensive capabilities are not that great.

You , obviously, have not been in a hotel to eat when a large group of them come down for breakfast....................

IraHayes wrote: ↑Wed Jul 07, 2021 9:18 am posted on 28th June over at http://www.generationaldynamics.com

28-Jun-21 World View -- Japan's plans for defending Taiwan from an attack by China

China's Dong Jingwei defects to the United States

by John J. Xenakis

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Japan's relations with Taiwan
• Defending Taiwan as 'collective self-defense'
• Is Taiwan a 'nation'?
• China's plan for invading Taiwan
• Japan provides vaccines to Taiwan
• Instability of the Chinese Communist Party
• China's Dong Jingwei defects to the United States

I had forgotten about the Dong Jingwei story and I think it deserves more attention... if only for the lack of publicity it has garnered.

On top of all this, there have been reports that Xi Jinping and CCP officials have been shocked at the defection in February of Dong Jingwei and his daughter to the United States. Dong is China's Vice Minister of State Security in the Chinese Ministry of Defense. He is perhaps the highest-level Chinese defector the U.S. has ever had.

He is reported to be providing information about the identity of all the Chinese spies in the US, and methods used by the Chinese to infiltrate the US government, businesses and universities.

That last bit, that I highlighted, could be a real can of worms. And this wasn't just some random flunky.. this guy was right up there at the top.