Tokyo has lodged a formal protest with Beijing after a senior Chinese diplomat threatened to “cut the dirty neck” of Japan’s Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi. The comments came from Xue Jian, China’s consul-general in Osaka, who posted the message online in response to remarks Takaichi made in parliament about a possible Japanese military response should China attack Taiwan. The post, since deleted, has ignited outrage across Japan’s political spectrum and renewed fears of a resurgence in China’s aggressive “wolf warrior” diplomacy.
In a speech last week, Takaichi warned that a Chinese assault on Taiwan would represent an “existential crisis” for Japan, potentially triggering collective self-defence under its revised security laws. Her comments reflect Tokyo’s increasingly assertive posture within the Indo-Pacific alliance system, where cooperation with the United States, Australia, and other regional partners has intensified in the face of Beijing’s military expansion.
Xue’s response was swift and incendiary. “We would have no choice but to cut that dirty neck that has lunged at us, without a moment’s hesitation. Are you ready for that?” he wrote. The remark was removed shortly afterward, but not before George Glass, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, captured and reposted it on X (formerly Twitter) with the caption, “The mask slips — again.”
As The Times UK reported, Japan’s foreign ministry immediately filed a formal complaint, calling the statement “unacceptable and deeply insulting.” The Chinese foreign ministry attempted to distance itself from Xue’s rhetoric, saying it had made “stern representations” to Tokyo while denouncing Takaichi’s earlier remarks as “a blatant interference in China’s internal affairs.” Spokesman Lin Jian said Beijing “firmly opposes” Japan’s statements and warned of “serious consequences” if Tokyo aligns itself with Taiwanese defense initiatives.
Takaichi, Japan’s first female prime minister and a staunch conservative, defended her position in parliament, stating that her comments were hypothetical and that any decision regarding the use of force would be made “through a comprehensive judgment based on all available information.” Her rise to leadership last month was met with wary silence from Beijing, but the encounter with Xi Jinping at the recent APEC summit underscored both nations’ unease amid shifting geopolitical currents.
Relations between Japan and China remain shadowed by history. Memories of Japan’s wartime invasion of China in the 1930s linger in the public consciousness, often rekindled through state-sponsored films and nationalist rhetoric. Beijing’s claim over the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands has further strained ties, and recent military exercises around Taiwan have only intensified mutual suspicion.
While Chinese officials have sought in recent years to temper their more combative “wolf warrior” diplomats, Xue Jian has repeatedly tested those boundaries. Last year, he courted controversy by endorsing a left-wing Japanese election candidate on social media, writing, “Once politics goes wrong, the country becomes corrupt and ordinary people end up in hell.” That post, too, was quickly deleted.
The latest episode risks undoing recent efforts to stabilize Sino-Japanese relations and may reinforce the perception of a hardening Chinese diplomatic tone. As The Times UK observed, the incident exposes the volatility at the heart of East Asia’s security landscape—where words alone can now carry the weight of weapons.
