{"id":294632,"date":"2025-11-19T10:35:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T10:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/294632\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T10:35:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T10:35:06","slug":"china-suspends-seafood-imports-from-japan-as-taiwan-row-escalates-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/294632\/","title":{"rendered":"China suspends seafood imports from Japan as Taiwan row escalates | China"},"content":{"rendered":"

China has suspended imports of Japanese seafood again, as the fallout over the Japanese prime minister\u2019s comments about Taiwan<\/a> continues to escalate in one of worst bilateral disputes in years.<\/p>\n

The ban was first reported on Wednesday by the Japanese outlets Kyodo News and NHK, and appeared to be confirmed by China\u2019s foreign ministry, which said there was \u201cno market for Japanese seafood in the current climate\u201d.<\/p>\n

The reports said China\u2019s government had informed Japan it was suspending all seafood imports, months after it partly lifted a previous ban issued in 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The original ban was imposed in response to Japan\u2019s decision to release wastewater from the damaged and decommissioned Fukushima nuclear plant. Chinese officials reportedly said Wednesday\u2019s decision was related to a need to further monitor the water source, but it has been widely received as part of China\u2019s retaliatory measures amid a deepening diplomatic row with Japan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At a regular press briefing on Wednesday afternoon, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Japan had \u201cfailed to provide the technical documentation it committed to\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would also like to emphasise that due to [Japanese] prime minister Sanae Takaichi\u2019s recent actions that go against the tide and her erroneous remarks on major issues such as Taiwan, which have triggered strong public outrage in China<\/a>, there would be no market for Japanese seafood in the current climate even if Japan were able to export it to China.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the 2023 ban, the Chinese market \u2013 including Hong Kong \u2013 accounted for more than one-fifth of Japan\u2019s exports.<\/p>\n

The spat started after Takaichi told her country\u2019s parliament earlier this month that Japan could become militarily involved if China attacked Taiwan, because it would be a threat to Japan\u2019s existence.<\/p>\n

Beijing claims Taiwan is a Chinese province and has vowed to annex it, with military force if it cannot coerce or convince Taiwan to accept what it calls \u201creunification\u201d.<\/p>\n

Takaichi had been asked what would trigger Japan\u2019s 2015 \u201ccollective self-defence\u201d laws, which give exceptions for Japan\u2019s postwar ban on using force to settle international disputes.<\/p>\n

The remarks infuriated Beijing, which has repeatedly demanded Takaichi retract her comments, accusing her of issuing a \u201cmilitary threat\u201d against China, and of pursuing a \u201crevival\u201d of Japan\u2019s prewar militarism.<\/p>\n

Takaichi has not withdrawn her comments, although her government has said Japan\u2019s self-defence policy has not changed. Earlier this week, she sent a high-ranking foreign ministry official to Beijing for talks, but they did not appear to lower tensions.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that Takaichi\u2019s remarks \u201ccaused fundamental damage to the political foundation of China-Japan relations\u201d.<\/p>\n

The reported seafood ban comes amid a swathe of rhetorical, symbolic, and economic retaliations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, China sent a coastguard fleet through the disputed waters around the Senkaku Islands and military drones past Japan\u2019s most westerly territory, Yonaguni Island, close to Taiwan\u2019s east coast.<\/p>\n

After China issued a travel warning to tourists and students planning to visit Japan, almost a dozen airlines offered refunds to passengers and about 500,000 people were estimated to have cancelled flights. Shares in Japanese retail and tourism companies fell sharply on Monday<\/a>. State-owned enterprises, including Chinese banks, have also reportedly told staff not to travel to Japan.<\/p>\n

Japanese film releases have also been suspended and numerous cross-cultural events have been cancelled. On Tuesday, China\u2019s permanent representative to the UN, Fu Cong, told a forum that Japan was \u201ctotally unqualified\u201d for a permanent seat on the UN security council, citing Takaichi\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Lillian Yang<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"China has suspended imports of Japanese seafood again, as the fallout over the Japanese prime minister\u2019s comments about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,164],"class_list":{"0":"post-294632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-economy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}