TOKYO, March 19 (Reuters) – Japan rejected a U.S. assessment that its stance on how it might react to a potential Chinese attack on Taiwan marked a “significant shift” on Thursday, an issue that could cloud an imminent leaders’ summit between Tokyo and Washington.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments late last year that a hypothetical attack on Taiwan could bring about a military response from Tokyo drew a furious response from Beijing, which views the island as its own territory.
While Takaichi has maintained her remarks were in line with Japan’s longstanding policies, an annual report by U.S. intelligence agencies on Wednesday said they sharply departed from the rhetoric of previous Japanese leaders.
“The assessment that there has been a major shift is not accurate,” Japan’s top government spokesperson Minoru Kihara told a press briefing on Thursday.
Tokyo’s position of judging a so-called “existential crisis situation” – which Takaichi was being quizzed on in parliament when she made her November remarks on Taiwan – is consistent with the past, he added.
The differing views could cast a pall over Takaichi’s summit with U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday, already complicated by his demands for Japan and other allies to send escort ships to the Strait of Hormuz, largely closed by the Iran war.
Relations between China and Japan have plunged to their lowest in over a decade since Takaichi’s remarks, with Beijing urging its people not to travel to Japan and choking off some key exports.
The U.S. assessment said that China was likely to intensify such coercive actions through 2026, aimed at punishing Japan and deterring other countries from making similar statements about their potential involvement in a Taiwan crisis.
The report concluded that China does not currently plan to invade Taiwan in 2027 and seeks to control the island without the use of force.
The Pentagon late last year said the U.S. military believed China was preparing to be able to win a fight for Taiwan by 2027, the centenary of the founding of its People’s Liberation Army, and was refining options to take Taiwan by “brute force” if needed.
(Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim and John Geddie; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Jacqueline Wong)
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