Dispute over Taiwan, Beijing suspends fish imports from Japan

China has informed Japan that it will suspend imports of Japanese seafood products as part of the diplomatic dispute between the two countries that does not seem likely to heal any time soon, after statements made by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi regarding Taiwan.

This was reported by government sources, quoted by local media, once again widening the criticism for Tokyo in an industry already in crisis. China had in fact resumed buying products from Japan's seafood industry just earlier this month, after lifting the general import ban imposed in August 2023, when the Tokyo government decided to start dumping treated water at the nuclear site damaged by the 2011 tsunami in Fukushima prefecture.

Tuesday's talks with Japan failed to ease tensions, indicating that the dispute over Japanese premier Sanae Takaichi's comments on Taiwan is set to continue. Liu Jinsong, head of the Asian Affairs Department of China's Foreign Ministry, said he was "dissatisfied" with the outcome of the meeting with Masaaki Kanai, his Japanese counterpart, who came to Beijing in efforts to rekindle dialogue, according to The Paper.

A video released by the state media showing the senior Chinese diplomat casting a dirty look at his Japanese counterpart as he bids farewell at the Foreign Ministry headquarters has circulated on Mandarin social media, going viral and a flashpoint in the already strained relations between Beijing and Tokyo.

Sino-Japanese relations have deteriorated since Takaichi, who became the first woman in Tokyo to ascend to the premiership, publicly linked the conflict in the Taiwan Strait to the potential deployment of Japanese troops in 'collective self-defence', provoking swift and furious retaliation from Beijing, which considers Taipei a 'sacred' and 'inalienable' part of its territory to be reunified even by force if necessary.