The Taiwan question should be handled with extra caution, said National Defense Ministry's spokesman Zhang Xiaogang at a press conference in Beijing on Wednesday.
Zhang made the comments in response to a media query concerning Taiwan regional leader Lai Ching-te's planned "transit" trips to New York and Dallas during a scheduled visit to Paraguay, Guatemala, and Belize in August.
"Upholding the one-China principle is what the greater national interests entail, and what all Chinese people aspire for and the inevitable trend of the times. China firmly opposes any form of official interaction between any country and the Taiwan region. We hope the United States will abide by the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiques, handle the Taiwan question with extra caution, and promote the steady, sound and sustainable development of China-U.S. relations," Zhang said.
China urges relevant countries to handle Taiwan Question with extra caution
A Japanese lawmaker has raised concerns over Japan's push to expand its military and its nuclear policy.
Responding to some politicians' dangerous tendency towards possessing nuclear weapons, Takara Sachika, a member of Japan's House of Councilors, said that Japan's push to strengthen its military, combined with what she called a misguided nuclear policy, not only heightens regional tensions but also directly threatens regional security.
"I think this is completely unacceptable. Japan is a country that has suffered atomic bombings and is one of the nations most aware of the threat posed by nuclear weapons. Yet such a country is openly discussing the issue of possessing nuclear weapons and even attempting to revise the principle of not allowing the introduction of nuclear weapons, one of the Three Non-Nuclear Principles. This is an extremely serious problem," Takara said.
Takara said the Japanese government's tendency to expand its military capabilities is completely contrary to the Constitution.
"From the perspective of Japan's Constitution, Japan should never have adopted a policy of ensuring security by strengthening military capabilities. Yet today, enormous effort is being poured into military expansion, and that in itself is a serious problem," said the lawmaker.
At a Diet meeting in early November 2025, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said that what she described as the Chinese central authorities' "use of force on Taiwan" could constitute a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, and suggested the possibility of armed intervention in the Taiwan Strait, drawing strong criticism worldwide.
Takara urged Takaichi to retract her erroneous remarks as soon as possible.
"I think there is a very big problem with making such remarks that provoke other countries. It is necessary to thoroughly examine the facts as soon as possible and withdraw the relevant remarks," she said.
Japanese lawmaker criticizes nuclear weapons remarks as threat to regional security
