Beijing cautions Japan not to join anti-China blocs led by US amid tensions over Taiwan

Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councillor Wang Yi, speaking at an event to commemorate five years of diplomatic relations between China and Japan, said that it was vital that Tokyo maintain their current peaceful ties with Beijing and not side with any anti-China political blocs, especially those being led by the United States. China and Japan have had historic ties marred with sensitive issues surrounding territory and essentially Taiwan. However, both the countries have managed to keep their bond relatively peaceful for the past few decades. 

Yi’s comments come a day after Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada announced Japan’s plans to further increase their defence expenditure to its military by fifty percent in the next five years. Defending the move, Tokyo said it was to “firmly secure the necessities to pursue substantial reinforcement.” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning denounced the move as “highly dangerous,” stating that it would “put Asian neighbours and the international community on high alert about Japan’s commitment to an exclusively defensive policy and to peaceful development.”

“China and Japan should treat each other with sincerity and strive to live together peacefully,” rather than provoke each other’s core interests, including “heavily sensitive issues involving history and Taiwan,” Wang said in a virtual address to a Wednesday event in Tokyo, reported Sputnik. “The differences that exist between the two sides should be properly dealt with in accordance with the existing consensus, and more new consensus should be constantly sought,” Wang stated, adding that there was an opportunity “to push China-Japan relations forward in the right direction in a sustained and stable manner.” 

China and Japan - a tricky but peaceful relation

Having established diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1972, both the countries have vowed to "establish relations of perpetual peace and friendship." Tokyo recognised Beijing as the sole government over Taiwan to avoid deteriorating any relations with China. Some islands in the East China sea are still disputed by both the countries which are strategic in location near Taiwan. China claims the islands as a Chinese province that is governed by foreign-backed rebels.

As US lawmakers visited the highly disputed nation of Taiwan, China has grown increasingly agitated and looking to its neighbours to confirm their stand on the dispute. The US has sided with Taiwan aiding them with military equipment as Taipei has vowed to defend itself from a possible Chinese attack with the help of United States and its allies.