China has warned that there is “no market” for Japan’s seafood exports, the latest veiled threat from Beijing as a diplomatic spat with Tokyo escalates over the Japanese leader’s recent comments on defending Taiwan.
Tensions between the two neighbors have sharply escalated since Japanese leader Sanae Takaichi said in response to a parliamentary question that a Chinese attack on Taiwan would be considered a “situation that threatens Japan’s existence” and could therefore trigger a military response from the Japanese government.
The Chinese government considers Taiwan’s autonomous democracy to be its own territory, and has vowed to take control of the island by force if necessary. For the Chinese government, Taiwan’s sovereignty is the most sensitive issue in its relations with other countries, and is a “red line” that must not be crossed.
For more than a week, Chinese and state media have criticized Gaoichi almost daily and threatened to impose economic sanctions on the Japanese government unless he retracts his comments.
Seafood emerged as the latest pressure point at China’s Foreign Ministry’s regular press conference on Wednesday.
“Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s erroneous statements on important issues in Taiwan have caused strong public anger within China,” Spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters. “Under the current situation, even if Japanese seafood products were exported to China, there would be no market for them.”
Earlier in the day, Mao was reacting to Japanese media reports that China had informed Tokyo of its plans to ban seafood exports from Japan. Both NHK and Kyodo News reported this, citing people involved.
However, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told reporters that the Japanese government has not yet received any confirmation from the Chinese government regarding this matter.
Mao’s response did not confirm that a ban was in place, but there are growing prospects that one could be taken along with further punitive measures.
“Japan should first withdraw its false statements and take concrete actions to protect the political foundations of China-Japan relations. Otherwise, China will have no choice but to take further measures,” Mao said.
China only partially resumed imports of seafood from Japan earlier this year after banning them in August 2023 in response to Tokyo’s decision to start releasing treated radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami in 2011 contaminated the water inside the factory with high levels of radioactive material. The Japanese government has insisted it treated the water properly, but the Chinese government has long led regional opposition to returning the water to the sea.
In contrast to the Chinese threat, Taiwanese leader Lai Ching-toku turned to social media this week to express support for Japanese seafood, posting a photo of his sushi lunch to X on Thursday.
The threat of a new seafood ban comes after the Chinese government advised its citizens not to travel to Japan last week.
The move is non-binding, but highly symbolic. Nearly 7.5 million Chinese tourists visited Japan from January to September this year, by far the most of any country or region, according to official data cited by Japanese public broadcaster NHK.
Chinese airlines including Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines have since posted notices on their websites offering customers refunds or free changes for some tickets to Japan, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Japanese companies are also starting to report cancellations.
Tokyo-based travel company East Japan International Travel Service has announced that it has lost 70% of its bookings for the remainder of this year due to the ongoing conflict between Japan and China.
Yu Jinxing, vice president of the company, told CNN that this was a “huge loss for us,” adding that Chinese travel groups were an important part of the company’s business.
“We can withstand the short-term impact of one to two months, but if the situation becomes long-term, the financial burden on our operations will be significant,” Yu added.
Previous Japanese leaders have avoided discussing Taiwan in the context of a military response to avoid upsetting China, Japan’s largest trading partner.
Takaichi, a hawk who has promoted strengthening Japan’s defense capabilities, visited Taiwan earlier this year before becoming prime minister and called for cooperation on “defense challenges” that the Chinese government criticized at the time.
She has previously criticized China’s growing military presence in East Asia and once again infuriated China by meeting with Taiwanese representatives during the APEC summit.
At the same summit, he said he spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping and requested that China resume imports of Japanese beef and seafood.
CNN’s Mai Takiguchi and Chloe Jen contributed to this report.
