What's in China's UN letter? Beijing's sharpest warning to Japan in decades

China has formally warned it will “resolutely exercise the right to self defense” if Japan intervenes in a Taiwan conflict.

The Chinese officials delivered a sharply worded letter to United Nations (UN) Security General António Guterres that Beijing has requested be circulated to all UN member states.

China’s Permanent Representative to UN, Fu Chong, sent the letter on Friday, November 21, outlining Beijing’s objectives to comments made by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who earlier this month cited that the Chinese use of force against Taiwan could create a “survival threatening situation” for Japan, indicating the possibility of armed intervention under its collective self-defense framework.

China's letter entirely focuses on defending what its officials cite as the country's “core interests,” with Fu accusing Takaichi of making Japan’s first explicit military threat to China since 1945.

In the letter, the prime minister’s remarks:

• Mark the first time a Japanese leader has publicly associated the Taiwan issue to Japan’s right of collective self-defense.
• Indicate the first instance of Tokyo indicating willingness to intervene militarily on Taiwan.
• Constitute an “open provocation" toward China and violation of both international law and the post-war order.

Additionally, the letter referred to Takaichi's statements as “extremely erroneous, highly dangerous, and malicious,” and cited that they “seriously undermine the post-war international order” and insult “more than 1.4 billion Chinese people and the people of Asian countries that once suffered from Japanese aggression.”

China’s main argument

The core of the letter lies in Beijing’s longstanding position that Taiwan is an “inalienable part of China” and that any decision regarding it is strictly internal.

Fur clearly warned that any Japanese armed involvement in the Taiwan conflict “would constitute an act of aggression.”

Under such a situation, he wrote, China would invoke the right to “self defense” afforded by the UN Charter and “firmly safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

The letter also reiterates Beijing’s demand that Japan honor its political commitments on the one-China principle and “immediately cease provocative acts that cross red lines.”