Japan Deputy PM Comment On Defending Taiwan Angers China

Recent military exercises by China and Taiwan across the Straits of Taiwan have raised tensions in the region.

Japan's deputy prime minister Taro Aso has said the country needed to defend Taiwan with the United States if the island was invaded, Kyodo news agency reported late on Monday, angering Beijing which regards Taiwan as its own territory. China has never ruled out using force to reunite Taiwan with the mainland and recent military exercises by China and Taiwan across the Straits of Taiwan have raised tensions. "If a major problem took place in Taiwan, it would not be too much to say that it could relate to a survival-threatening situation (for Japan)," Japan's deputy prime minister Taro Aso said at a fundraising party by a fellow Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker, according to Kyodo. A "survival-threatening situation" refers to a situation where an armed attack against a foreign country that is in a close relationship with Japan occurs, which in turns poses a clear risk of threatening Japan's survival.