Overview
- Senior officials met in Beijing on Tuesday as Japan’s Masaaki Kanai held talks with China’s Liu Jinsong to ease tensions, with Tokyo stressing no change to its Taiwan stance under the 1972 joint communique.
- Sanae Takaichi has declined to retract her comment that Chinese use of force against Taiwan could constitute a “survival‑threatening situation” for Japan under its collective self‑defence law.
- China urged citizens to avoid Japan and cautioned students, Chinese airlines offered free changes or refunds, and reports cited hundreds of thousands of booking cancellations alongside slumps in Japan’s tourism and retail shares.
- China Coast Guard vessels patrolled near the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands, Japan reported a brief territorial waters intrusion, and PLA-linked commentary warned Japan would face a “crushing defeat” if it intervened.
- Both governments lodged protests after a now-deleted post by China’s Osaka consul threatened to “cut” a “dirty” head, and Beijing signaled no G20 meeting is planned between Li Qiang and Takaichi.