Beijing’s attempt to punish Japan over Taiwan is a major strategic blunder that is likely to backfire.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi holds a press conference at the Prime Minister's Official Residence in Tokyo, Japan, October 21, 2025. Credit: Cabinet Public Affairs Office
When Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned last month that Japan risks returning to the militarism of the 1930s, he might have paused to consider the historian John W. Dower’s observation that Imperial Japan justified its expansion through a toxic blend of racial hierarchy, national destiny, and the language of liberation. That combination bears a more than passing resemblance to Beijing’s own posture toward the Taiwanese, Hong Kongers, the Uyghurs, and Tibetans.
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