China This Week | Roots of Japan-China tensions and row over Arunachal Pradesh woman’s detention

Closer home, a UK-based, Indian-origin woman from Arunachal Pradesh alleged that Chinese immigration officials at the Shanghai airport detained her for 18 hours on November 21 during a transit halt. This stemmed from their refusal to recognise her passport and their claim that Arunachal was not a part of India. In an official statement, the Indian government said that Arunachal Pradesh being a part of India was an “indisputable reality”.

Here is a closer look at these developments:

1. Why China is still criticising Japan

To recap, as we wrote in the last edition of China This Week, Takaichi was speaking in the Japanese Parliament when she stated that any potential heightened military activity around Taiwan may require their military intervention.

For China, which considers the independently governed island of Taiwan its own territory and which has not ruled out taking control militarily, this was seen as an affront. What escalated matters were comments from a Chinese diplomat, who threatened to “cut off that dirty neck” in a post on X, referring to Takaichi.

More recently, Beijing criticised Tokyo’s plan to deploy a medium-range surface-to-air missile unit on Yonaguni, an island about 110 km off Taiwan, according to Reuters. Neither country appears to be cooling off, but the invocation of violence in relation to the prime minister underscores China’s particularly aggressive stance.

UPSHOT: The continued friction is a result of the countries’ complex history, the regional geopolitics, the hardline stances of their political leaders, and other factors.

From China’s perspective, Japan’s threat assumes significance because of its history of military aggression towards China in the 19th and 20th centuries. Japan also controlled Taiwan from 1895 to 1945 — from the time it won the first Sino-Japanese War to its loss in World War II.

That is not to say that Japan has interests in the territorial control of Taiwan. However, the island’s proximity to Japan, as well as its historical tensions and rivalry with China, make Chinese control an unwelcome prospect. In the past, too, leaders such as former PM Shinzo Abe have spoken about how “A Taiwan emergency is a Japanese emergency, and therefore an emergency for the Japan-U.S. alliance.”

China’s reaction, on the other hand, is a result of the importance it attaches to Taiwan, and a bid to play up nationalistic sentiments to appeal to its domestic audience.

Take the comments of Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi, who recently spoke about the 80th anniversary of World War 2. He said the return of Taiwan, which was “stolen” by Japan back then, was an obligation placed on the country. “However, it is shocking that the incumbent Japanese leader actually publicly sent a wrong signal attempting military intervention in the Taiwan question, saying things that should not be said and crossing red lines that should not be touched. China must resolutely strike back,” he said.

2. Xi-Trump call

The call was the first after the two leaders’ in-person meeting in South Korea a few weeks ago. Subjects such as Ukraine, Taiwan, and farm products were discussed amid mounting expectations that the US is working on closing a Ukraine-Russia peace deal.

According to state media website Xinhua, Trump affirmed that the US “understands the importance of the Taiwan issue to China.” Trump then described relations with China as being “extremely strong”. He added that he accepted Xi’s invitation to visit Beijing in April, and had invited Xi for a state visit to the US.

UPSHOT: With Xi having initiated the call, the move once again highlights Taiwan’s importance for China. It might also have something to do with how the subject of Taiwan — which often makes its way to many bilateral meetings’ statements — was not discussed during the leaders’ in-person meeting. At the time, some analysts interpreted it as a win for the United States.

Reuters reported that Trump spoke with Takaichi later and told reporters, “The United States’ relationship with China is very good, and that’s also very good for Japan, who is our dear and close ally.” In practice, however, China has largely been the centre of focus for the Trump administration, even at the cost of ties with other allies.

3. China’s claims on Arunachal Pradesh

The incident involving the UK-based Pema Thongdok led to both India and China releasing official statements. While China reiterated its claims on Arunachal, India said the incident was “most unhelpful” amid the ongoing process of normalisation of bilateral ties.

This was not the first time such an incident had happened. Most recently, in 2023, India withdrew its martial arts contingent from the Summer World University Games in Chengdu, after China issued “stapled visas” (unstamped paper that is stapled to a passport) instead of regular visas to three athletes from Arunachal Pradesh.

UPSHOT: Such attempts are meant to emphasise China’s claims on Arunachal Pradesh, which it refers to as South Tibet or Zangnan. The claims come from its rejection of the legal status of the McMahon Line, the boundary between Tibet and British India agreed at the Convention Between Great Britain, China, and Tibet at the Simla Convention of 1914.

China claims that Tibet did not have the standing to be a separate party to the treaty, and thus rejects the convention as a whole. It is this disagreement that lies at the heart of Chinese claims over the position of the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Another strategy is for China to give its own names to places in Arunachal Pradesh — it published a list of six such names in 2017, and another 15 names in 2021. This year, too, another such list led the Indian External Affairs Ministry to describe these as “vain and preposterous attempts.”