Japan rejects US assessment of its shift on Taiwan ahead of leaders’ meeting
TOKYO, March 19 (Reuters) – Japan rejected a U.S. assessment on Thursday that there was a “significant shift” in its stance on how it might respond to a possible Chinese attack on Taiwan; It’s an issue that could overshadow the upcoming leaders’ summit between Tokyo and Washington.
Comments by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi late last year that a hypothetical attack on Taiwan could provoke a military response from Tokyo drew an angry response from Beijing, which considers the island its own territory.
While Takaichi maintained that his remarks were in line with Japan’s long-standing policies, they were a sharp departure from the rhetoric of previous Japanese leaders, US intelligence agencies said in their annual report on Wednesday.
“The assessment that there has been a major change is not correct,” Minoru Kihara, Japan’s top government spokesman, said at a news conference on Thursday.
He added that Tokyo’s position in assessing the so-called “existential crisis situation” when Takaichi was questioned in parliament in November over his comments about Taiwan was consistent with the past.
Differing views could cast a shadow over Takaichi’s summit with US President Donald Trump on Thursday; It has already been complicated by demands from Japan and other allies to send escort ships to the Strait of Hormuz, which has been largely closed by the Iran war.
Relations between China and Japan have fallen to their lowest level in a decade since Takaichi’s comments, with Beijing urging its people not to travel to Japan and halting some key exports.
The US assessment said that “China is likely to intensify such coercive actions through 2026 aimed at punishing Japan and deterring other countries from making similar statements about their potential involvement in the Taiwan crisis.”
The report concluded that China does not currently plan to invade Taiwan in 2027 and is trying to control the island without the use of force.
Late last year, the Pentagon said the US military believed China could win a war for Taiwan by 2027, the centennial of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army, and was developing options to take Taiwan using “brute force” if necessary.
(Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim and John Geddie; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Jacqueline Wong)
