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Amid the backdrop of its spat with Japan, Beijing has hosted a flurry of recent diplomatic activity with European leaders. German Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil visited in November, followed this month by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul.
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This whirlwind of visits follows a similar active scene in the fall, when European leaders visited Japan during the World Expo Osaka.
The timing of the European leaders’ visits to China comes at a curious time for Japan. Last month in parliament, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made comments about a Taiwan emergency that triggered a furious response from China.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has been using his meetings with European officials to push Beijing’s narrative about the dispute.
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He reportedly told Wadephul that, unlike Germany, Japan has not thoroughly reflected on its history of aggression even 80 years after World War II.
He told French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot that Beijing believes France will understand and support China’s legitimate position, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
The European countries have refrained from commenting on these reports directly, an attitude that can be interpreted as tacit approval.
But Japan should not be too concerned about Europe cozying up to China. The recent diplomatic visits were mostly planned before Takaichi took office. European diplomacy in Asia typically balances visits among Japan, China, India and other major countries.
Europe’s basic position is to position Japan as a country with which it shares democratic values and the rule of law.
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Beijing is trying to spread the narrative that Tokyo is reverting to its militaristic ways, but EU policymakers are not buying it. Rather, they see China’s hegemonic ambitions as increasing the risk of a Taiwan conflict, forcing Japan to respond.
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The Chinese government’s call for its citizens to refrain from traveling to Japan has been widely reported in Europe. Meanwhile, China has a history of using export controls on rare-earth elements to pressure European companies. When these factors are combined, the image in Europe of China as an authoritarian state that uses economic coercion as a weapon grows stronger.
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Policymakers in major European economies frequently exchange information and coordinate China policies, though approaches vary across the continent. Long-term plans are emerging to reduce economic dependence on China, tighten regulations on Chinese companies operating in the European market and control the inflow of Chinese products into Europe.
Europe is pursuing strategic autonomy while seeking to distance itself from both Washington – which it is also at odds with – and Beijing moving forward. It is quietly working to de-risk from both powers as part of its long-term strategy to strengthen itself as an economic bloc.
Signs are emerging that China’s excessive pressure on Japan is failing to win over Europe.
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Japan must clearly demonstrate that it is a country based on the rule of law and an open society, and that it is a defender of liberal democracy and market economics. If Takaichi uses Group of Seven summits and other forums to explain this thoroughly, Europe will listen.
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Now is the time to deepen cooperation with democratic forces in the Indo-Pacific region like South Korea, Taiwan and Australia, and gird against authoritarian states seeking to disrupt the international order.
These guys? nah they’re not becoming more militaristic again, they’re just pouring money into their military and promoting people in the government that are pro military for… other reasons?
When your neighbour starts talking about invading it’s neighbours it’s not a bad idea to build up some deterrence. Especially when the country that has guaranteed peace is wanting to divide the world into spheres of influence.
China has never had a better time to invade Taiwan. Trump won’t do anything and will say it’s their natural border.
Which neighbors is it threatening to invade? I have seen no such reports. When was the last time China invaded anywhere?
Do you consider Hong Kong in 2020 a hostile takeover, an invasion, following agreed-upon procedure, or something else?
They’re actively threatening Taiwan in various, hybrid ways. Be it masked as military maneuvers and training operations specifically training how they would invade Taiwan, or using fishing vessels to violate waters.
@optissima@lemmy.ml
Taiwan, India, Japan, Nepal, Philippines, Russia, just to name a few. They demand territory from more or less all its neighbours, on land and at sea.
You need to read other sources than the .ml communities. That’s your problem. Just read independent media and get a life.
Lol try read the whole question, which neighbors are they threatening invasion with?
The most obvious is Taiwan.
Show me where they said they want to invade Taiwan. They claim it’s theirs, but they haven’t threatened to invade it.
@optissima
When did Russia say they want to invade Ukraine before they did it? When did any aggressor openly announced something like that?
As others have said in this thread, the aggressor uses its own narratives, but the messages is clear. And it may never have been so clear as in the case of China which is openly threatening Taiwan with invasion.
In October this year, at the Chinese Communist Party congress, the party-state leader Xi Jinping openly said that they are “not committed to abandoning the use of force and we reserve the option to take all necessary measures” for what he calls the “reunification” with Taiwan. (It can, of course, never be a reunification as Taiwan was never part of China.)
Two weeks later, Peng Qing’en, a spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, echoed this by saying that “we absolutely will not renounce the use of force and reserve the option to take all necessary measures.”
I guess “all necessary measures” means all necessary measures.
In November this year, a Chinese diplomat made a comment which can only be interpreted as a threat to behead Japanese PM Takaichi over her support for Taiwan.
In 2023, then Chinese ambassador to Japan threatened, “The Japanese people will be led into the pit of fire” if Tokyo decides to stand with Taiwan.
As others have already said, Taiwan is not the only Chinese target. In December 2024, for example, a video was circulating on Chinese social media that shows how China should conquer parts of Siberia up to lake Baikal.
A few weeks ago, an Indian woman was detained in Shanghai because her place of birth - a region in Northwestern India - is claimed by Beijing as “Chinese territory.”
At few days ago, civilian Filipino ships have been attacked by China’s coast guards that injured several people.
There is a sheer endless list of aggressive behaviour by China against practically literally all its neighbours, you’ll easily find reports if you want to.
Dude, he’s a tankie. Save your breath.
No links besides an opinion piece on social media, sad. All I keep asking for are sources.
That’s how invasions work, you bellend. They claim cassus beli and the invaded nation fucking dissagrees. Poland and Czechoslovakia was claimed in the same way by Germany.
“Nuh uh! Nuh uh! It’s our land. We have reasons, see? Not an invasion! Just taking back my own rightful land! My people live there!”
Nevermind that the people that live there claim their own soverency.
Edit: grammar.
That’s how cassus beli works, yes, but then you invade them. That is after. It’s not cassus beli if you don’t invade or go to war.
Show me the last Chinese invasion date and we’ll talk.
Just because China is a paper tiger doesn’t mean they won’t try. Look at Russia. They are laughably incompetent (just like China) but they are still murdering innocent people, just like China is with the Uyghurs inside the country.
Any country has the right to defend itself from Chinese terror.
I’ll try one last time: Which neighbors is it threatening to invade? When was the last time China invaded anywhere? We have seen Russia invade others for over a decade but China, despite being the most powerful economy since 2016 according to american economists, hasn’t. You’d think they’d be empowered after seeing minimal pushback on Crimea, but again they haven’t.
China annexed Tibet in 1959. Additionally you do have to be ignorant to not see that they very obviously threaten to invade Taiwan at some point if they will not let themselves get absorbed peacefully.
You got it! The last 66 years of not invading anyone of their 76 year existence. Seems odd that people are convinced they’re going to invade anywhere when they haven’t for a majority of anyones memory. It hurts to see so much manufactured consent there is here after seeing the us and europe invade the middle east continuously for all of my life based on lies, yet no doubt when there is a new place to claim they’re about to attack any moment. Hurts to see.
“It’s not threatening to invade, we’re just coincidentally running an amphibious assault war game right across the strai-- oops don’t mind those missiles, shot those a little too far 🤭”
If you’re going to be a disingenuous sea lion at least skip to claiming “it’s a valid casus belli and blah blah blah”. It’d save us all a lot of time.
Thank you for the link! I wasn’t sea lioning, I was asking for a claim to be backed up with a source. I appreciate you linking it and I’ll check it out.
edit: after following sources I dont see that there were any accidents that occured? I do see that in the linked reuters source “Taiwan’s defence ministry said it had detected no live fire drills around the island itself,” so where is said accident? Unless you are saying that the games themselves are making them feel threatened, which I can understand. They are on the island that China drove the previous, highly oppressive, government to and is currently a vassal of the superpower that keeps talking about wanting to go to war with them afyer failing to oppress them.
It’s textbook sea lioning: asking for information you can easily find yourself as a civil question and now backing out of it to some other tangential sticking point.
The missile comment was a tongue in cheek reference to the third Taiwan strait missile crisis. Even worse than accidental, they just straight up said “[the missile tests] attacked the power of the ‘Taiwan separatists’”. There’s no way to reconcile that with your imagined warm and fuzzy peaceful-reunification world super power.
Ah there it is. Does an oppressive government give you free reign to attack the sovereignty of a neighbor? That sure smells a lot like America-style “liberation”. But of course when America does it we call it imperialist.
And spare me this cold war era quid pro quo defense. No superpower in history has ever been in such desperate straits that aggressive action against a minor power was critical to their security. It’s just a convenient excuse to play international power games.
I have been finding internet searches very unreliable in the last year, so yeah I’m not sealioning if someone is making unsourced claims.
I’ll end with this: China’s not perfect, it’s far from it. There are issues, like them holding the indian woman mentioned here. The issue is that everyone keeps calling China aggressive and threatening, using the same rhetoric that has been used by bullies to justify attacking more peaceful groups time immemorial.
If the oppressive governement was the one you drove out of your country and they keep calling for your destruction while killing people you were liberating, yes?
Found the Chinese agent
All I did was point out that Japan is becoming more militaristic with sources and yall lose your minds.
Yeah, No fucking Shit. Japan literally said it’s required because the manchildren in charge of China and Russia are acting up and throwing a massive hissy fit and decided the world doesn’t need peace.
And before you shoehorn America into this somehow, like you .ml freaks always do, everyone here knows that America is the bad guy and has always been the bad guy.
Why are you lumping Russia and China together like they’re doing the same thing? If American govt is the bad guy, why are you supporting those that support them and using their talking points and not considering they’re lying to you?
What does ‘militaristic’ mean in your eyes?
Note that you were quoting “the narrative that Tokyo is reverting to its militaristic ways”, referring to the past as a reference, not just investing in the military.
Your source doesn’t even mention official Japanese positions or investments.
Did you actually read your “source”?
You can say the same thing about Germany. There was a point in history when it was imparativ to make sure Germany can never host a huge army in the middle of europe again. Can’t remember why…
The whole world worked very hard to make sure they lose interest in mass-producing weapons. Because they are very good at it.
And then a close neighbour was invaded. Now what? Roll over and pay ransom? Or are they allowed to defend themselves, with a strong possibility to hand over a huge army to rightwing nutcases?