China’s ‘Wolf Warrior’ Diplomacy Returns With Threat Against Japan’s Leader

Asia Pacific|China’s ‘Wolf Warrior’ Diplomacy Returns With Threat Against Japan’s Leader

Infuriated by comments about Taiwan by Japan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, China has unleashed a stream of vitriol, including a threat by a Chinese diplomat to cut off the leader’s “filthy neck.”

The abuse abruptly ended a honeymoon between Ms. Takaichi, in office for less than a month, and China. She had met China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, just last month in South Korea, with the two leaders warmly shaking hands and smiling.

It also ended China’s turn away from so-called wolf warrior diplomacy, an aggressive, in-your-face approach to foreign relations that took shape after Mr. Xi rose to power in Beijing in 2012 but had largely faded in recent years.

Relations between China and Japan have for decades been prone to intemperate feuds fueled largely by bitter Chinese memories of World War II, when the Japanese army committed multiple atrocities, including the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, crimes for which Beijing believes Tokyo has never sufficiently apologized.

The latest eruption between the two Asian powers began on Friday with Ms. Takaichi’s response to a question in Parliament about potential “survival-threatening situations,” a classification that, under Japanese law, allows the deployment of the country’s military forces.

Ms. Takaichi said that an attempt by China to blockade or seize Taiwan, which lies less than 70 miles from Japanese territory and sits astride shipping lanes vital for Japan’s economic survival, could constitute such a situation. China considers Taiwan, a self-governed democracy, part of its territory.