CCP and Japan officials held talks amid tensions in Taiwan

On August 18th, it was reported that the CCP’s recent military threats to Taiwan coupled with Japan’s protests after the CCP launched missiles into Japan’s exclusive economic zone during military exercises have created new tensions. The CCP held talks with Japan officials.

 Yang Jiechi met with Akiba Takeo, head of Japan’s National Security Secretariat. This comes after the CCP cancelling a meeting between the foreign ministers of the two countries due to Japan signing a G7 group statement criticizing the CCP’s threatening military exercises against Taiwan.

 After U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ignored the CCP’s threats and continue her visit to Taiwan, the CCP conducted military exercises around Taiwan for nearly two weeks. With another U.S. congressional delegation visiting Taiwan after Pelosi, the CCP announced this week that it will conduct further military exercises against Taiwan. The exercises appear to have had no impact on Taiwan’s 23 million-plus population, the vast majority of which support the de facto independent status quo.

 In a press release earlier this month, the U.S. State Department stated that Akiba Takeo met with U.S. National Security Adviser Jack Sullivan in Washington, during which they reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and stressed their determination to unite against the Russian invasion of Ukraine and to jointly support the Ukrainian people.

 The CCP’s threat to Taiwan has been likened to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Shortly before Moscow deployed troops in February, Putin and Xi met in Beijing and declared their relationship “unrestricted”, and that Russia supported the CCP’s claims on Taiwan.