How China’s 2-for-1 diplomatic threat forced Japan’s Takaichi to back down

One year after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remarks on a Taiwan contingency froze Beijing-Tokyo ties, a Japanese media report has detailed a failed diplomatic mission to turn the table.

The episode, revealed by the Yomiuri newspaper on Sunday, occurred during a meeting in Beijing on November 18 last year between Masaaki Kanai from the Japanese foreign ministry and his Chinese counterpart Liu Jinsong, then head of Asian affairs.

The report said Kanai was conveying a message from Takaichi that...