China protests reported Japan plan to deploy missiles on island near Taiwan

ISTANBUL

China protested Japan’s reported plan to deploy missiles on Yonaguni Island near Taiwan, saying on Monday that the step is a “deliberate move” that raises regional tensions already heightened by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s recent remarks on Taiwan.

“The deployment of offensive weapons in the southwest islands close to China's Taiwan is a deliberate move that breathes regional tensions,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Monday.

“Given Japanese Prime Minister (Sanae) Takaichi's erroneous remarks on Taiwan, this move is extremely dangerous. The neighboring countries and the world should be on high alert,” Mao told a news conference in Beijing.

Her comments followed a Bloomberg report quoting 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.

“The deployment can help lower the chance of an armed attack on our country,” Koizumi told reporters at the end of his first trip to the base on Yonaguni. “The view that it will heighten regional tensions is not accurate.”

Mao said the deployment would violate Japan’s Constitution, “which enshrines pacifism,” and undermine the country’s long-standing exclusively defense-oriented security policy.

“It is alarming that in recent years, Japan has drastically readjusted security and defense policy, increase defense budget year after year, relax restrictions on arms exports, sought to develop office offensive weapons and plan to abandon its three non-nuclear principles,” she said.

“China will never allow Japan's right-wing provocateurs to turn back the world history, never allow external forces to lay their hands on China's Taiwan region and never allow the resurgence of Japan's militarism. China is resolved and capable of defending territorial sovereignty,” she added.

Mao also commented on the absence of a meeting between Takaichi and Chinese Premier Li Qiang during the G20 summit in South Africa, saying: "China hopes Japan will take China’s concerns seriously, withdraw its erroneous remarks on the Taiwan question, and demonstrate genuine sincerity for dialogue through concrete actions."

Tensions 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 Beijing imposed a ban on Japanese seafood imports, while China postponed a trilateral culture ministers’ meeting with Japan and South Korea -- a move that Tokyo criticized.

On the missed meeting between Takaichi and Li during the G20 summit, Mao reiterated: "China hopes Japan will take China’s concerns seriously, withdraw its erroneous remarks on Taiwan question, and demonstrate genuine sincerity for dialogue through concrete actions."