Anyone who upsets China on the Taiwan issue must now expect tough measures. Japan is now feeling the effects after it angered Beijing on the Taiwan topic. What used to be sharp words now has tangible consequences. Just a few weeks ago, Japan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, stood next to Xi Jinping on a stage in South Korea, smiling politely. Now, less than 30 days later, a Chinese diplomat is talking about “cutting off the dirty head” of the Japanese prime minister.
No one expected it to run harmoniously between historical arch-enemies China and Japan. But Beijing’s words are not only extremely drastic, but also stand for the return of a foreign policy that Beijing actually wanted to scale back: the so-called Wolf-warrior diplomacy. Wolf-warrior diplomacy is a foreign policy style that does not focus on de-escalation, but on confrontation: aggressive verbal battles, personal attacks, public threats. Diplomacy that does not appease, but intimidates.
So what happened? The Japanese prime minister Takaichi told parliament “that an attack by China on Taiwan could be a situation threatening the survival of Japan.” A sober assessment from Tokyo’s point of view. Because Taiwan is only about 100 kilometers from Japanese territory. Taiwan controls sea lanes that are essential to Japan’s economy and has been a neuralgic point of regional security for years. But for Beijing, Taiwan is an intra-Chinese issue: it is to be “reunited” with mainland China. And any reference by a neighboring state to possible military consequences is understood as presumption.
Beijing initially reacted formally to Taikaichi’s remarks. But the language quickly tipped into another register. Xue Jian, the Chinese consul general in Osaka, wrote on X in Japanese that the “dirty head” interfering must be “rejected without hesitation. A sentence that arrived in Japan like a threat at the highest personal level. In the days that followed, a wave of nationalist comments rolled through Beijing’s information channels. Taikaichi was described as a “witch,” and a “troublemaker.” The state broadcaster CCTV said that anyone who “interferes” in questions of Taiwan was “shoveling his own grave.”
Other commentators drew comparisons to the Japanese invasion of China in 1931. Taiwan is a special place in history. From 1895 to 1945, the island was a Japanese colony. Many Taiwanese of that time felt closer to Japan culturally than China. However, the People’s Republic of China interprets this chapter differently: For Beijing, the return of Taiwan in 1945 is an act of historical justice.
The fact that Beijing’s foreign policy is so unabashedly committed to escalating against those whose positioning is not pleased is not only for historical reasons. It is also an expression of a shift in the Politburo’s power-political calculation. Under Deng Xiaoping, the guiding formula was “Hide your strength and wait,” a doctrine that shaped China from the ‘80s to the early 2000s. It was about economic opening, international integration and conflict prevention.
In 2012, the basic attitude changed with Xi Jinping’s accession to power. The claim to be a “strong nation” became central. A Wolf-warrior mentality emerged in 2017/2018 -- fueled by the conflict with the US, growing self-confidence at home and growing role of social media. Diplomats such as Zhao Lijian publicly attacked foreign governments for the first time and criticism of China was rejected offensively.
From 2022, a visible moderation followed. The pandemic had damaged China’s international reputation, weakened the economy and Xi sought stability in relations with Europe and Asia. State media dampened their tone.
The new escalation towards Japan now shows how fragile this phase of moderation was. Under the impression of growing geopolitical competition, Beijing again allows itself to use deliberately intimidating language. It mobilizes patriotic sentiments, distracts from internal problems (youth unemployment is around 20 percent and many academics hardly can find a job) and signals to the region that China is more determined to assert its core interests than before. It is less a change of course than a return to a style that has never completely disappeared.
China also suddenly put on hard bandages against the powerful US. The US president’s tariff threats have been added reciprocally and Xi Jinping has drawn the sharpest sword so far: he imposed export restrictions on rare earth. A raw material that is of the highest relevance not only to the American economy, but also to the European economy in all sectors -- from automobiles to armaments.
The fact that China is now using its real-political power in addition to rhetoric is a sign of a new self-confidences in Beijing. And the realization that China has now become so powerful that it no longer has to hide and no longer has to accept the violation of its core interests.