China tests our alliance with Japan

Following a threat from its consul general in Osaka that Sanae Takaichi should have her “dirty neck” severed, China remains infuriated over the admission by Japan’s prime minister that a Chinese attack on Taiwan would justify military action. Takaichi simply offered an honest appraisal of the devastating consequences a Chinese conquest of Taiwan would bring for Tokyo.

China is determined to impose costs on the new prime minister for her courage, costs that increasingly seem designed to test the foundations of the U.S.-Japan alliance. Chinese Communist Party Chairman Xi Jinping wants to see what the United States will do, if anything, as he escalates his threats to Japanese sovereignty.