A Chinese official threatened to behead the Japanese prime minister after she suggested Japan could become involved in a war over Taiwan.
Sanae Takaichi, the Japanese leader, said Chinese military action against Taiwan, such as a blockade, could trigger a “survival-threatening situation”, which could force Japan to become involved.
In response, Xue Jian, China’s consul general in Osaka, threatened to “cut off a dirty neck without a moment of hesitation” in a post on X along with a news article citing Ms Takaichi’s comments.
“Are you ready for that?” he added, followed by an angry-face emoji.
The Chinese diplomat also shared several posts written by other people, including one which said that if Japan were to attack Chinese forces, “it would immediately provoke a counterattack from China”, and if Ms Takaichi wants to “casually talk about initiating war as if it’s nothing, the country is finished”.
Minoru Kihara, Japan’s top government spokesman, told reporters on Monday the post was “extremely inappropriate”.
He said Japan’s foreign ministry and the Japanese embassy in China lodged a protest and asked for the post to be deleted.
The post is no longer visible on Mr Xue’s official X account.
Lin Jian, China’s foreign ministry spokesman, said on Monday that the country had lodged a serious protest with Japan over Ms Takaichi’s comments, claiming attempts by Japanese officials to “meddle on cross-strait affairs” would cause serious damage to China-Japan relations.
Ms Takaichi stood by her comments on Monday when asked in parliament to clarify her position.
“Although I did state a number of possible scenarios, I also said the government will make a comprehensive judgment on whether the situation constitutes a ‘survival-threatening situation’ taking into account all information,” she said.
Beijing maintains it has sovereignty over Taiwan, which the government in Taipei firmly rejects.
Most Japanese leaders have chosen to stay away from the hot-button issue to avoid confrontation with China.
Japan is one of Taiwan’s closest neighbours, with its closest island less than 70 miles away, and hosts more than 50,000 US troops, which experts have referred to as the “tip of the spear” if the US were to come to Taiwan’s defence.
The initial comment by Ms Takaichi on Friday was made in response to a question about what would be considered a survival-threatening situation.
Ms Takaichi said a line of Chinese ships around Taiwan would not fall into that category, but if Beijing carried out a naval blockade while fighting was taking place, that would constitute a survival-threatening situation and Japan’s Self-Defense Forces would be sent in to offer support.
Since Mr Xue’s post on Saturday, many in Japan, including the country’s ambassador to Australia, have called for him to be designated a persona non grata and expelled from the country, claiming the post was “excessively rude”.
George Glass, the US ambassador to Japan, also responded to Mr Xue’s social media post, saying it was “time for Beijing to behave like the ‘good neighbour’ it talks repeatedly about – but fails repeatedly to become”.
China’s ministry of foreign affairs criticised Ms Takaichi earlier this month for meeting with Taiwan officials on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea.
