Hatoyama Urges Takaichi to Retract Taiwan Remarks, Affirm One-China Policy

Former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has called on the administration of incumbent Prime Minister Takaichi to withdraw its remarks concerning Taiwan, urging Tokyo to restate its commitment to the one-China policy without ambiguity.

Hatoyama made the appeal during the 13th Beijing Xiangshan Forum, which opened on Tuesday and runs through Thursday in the Chinese capital. He was speaking as a participant in the forum's high-end interview sessions.

Describing Taiwan as an extremely sensitive subject in China-Japan relations, Hatoyama said it was important for Japan to keep honouring the understandings set out in the 1972 Japan-China Joint Communique, which underpins the one-China position. He said he could understand why China was concerned by Takaichi's remarks made last year, noting that in diplomacy even a shift in wording can be read as a shift in policy.

Hatoyama said Takaichi should either retract the remarks or, through some other means, state in an absolutely unambiguous manner that Japan continues to respect the one-China policy.

The controversy dates to a Diet meeting in November last year, when Takaichi said the Chinese mainland's use of force on Taiwan could amount to a survival-threatening situation for Japan. She declined to retract the remark, which implies the possibility of armed intervention in the Taiwan Strait.

The statement drew widespread outrage and condemnation across China, and Beijing has repeatedly pressed Japan to withdraw it.