How China’s ‘two-for-one’ diplomatic threat forced Japan’s Takaichi to back down

The episode, revealed by the Yomiuri newspaper on Sunday, occurred during a meeting in Beijing on November 18 last year between Masaaki Kanai from the Japanese foreign ministry and his Chinese counterpart Liu Jinsong, then head of Asian affairs.

The report said Kanai was conveying a message from Takaichi that Japan was considering expelling a Chinese diplomat over a social media post. Liu named Japanese consuls general stationed in China and warned: “If you expel one, we will expel two.”