Japan would treat a Chinese invasion of Taiwan as a crisis for its own security, the country’s former prime minister said in the latest indication that Tokyo would take part in any armed defence of the self-governed island.
Shinzo Abe, who stepped down last year but remains an influential power broker in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), was speaking as a Chinese nuclear submarine made a rare surface transit of the Taiwan Strait in what appears to be a show of strength. Abe used an online speech to a Taiwanese think tank to send a direct warning to President Xi of China.
“Any armed invasion of Taiwan would present a serious threat to Japan,” he told the Institute for National Policy Research. “A Taiwan