China Refuses to Join Summit with Japan, South Korea in Latest Fallout from Takichi Remark

The Yomiuri Shimbun

13:23 JST, November 23, 2025

China has indicated it will not join what was supposed to be a trilateral summit with Japan and South Korea that Japan is chairing, multiple diplomatic sources said.

This is believed to be a response to Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s recent remark in the Diet about a Taiwan contingency and a “survival-threatening situation.”

The Japanese government sounded out China and South Korea on a plan to hold the trilateral summit in the first half of January in Japan. South Korea agreed on the plan but China did not, according to the sources.

China’s refusal to participate in the summit is yet another indication that Sino-Japanese tensions are affecting trilateral cooperation. A meeting of the three countries’ culture ministers scheduled for later this month has also been postponed at China’s request.

In September 2012, China refused to hold a trilateral summit after Japan nationalized the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture.