Nov 11, Kathmandu - Japan and China are locked in a dispute over Japan's potential military involvement in Taiwan.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said the country's Self-Defense Forces could be deployed if an attack on Taiwan posed an "existential threat" to Japan. Beijing responded strongly earlier this month.

Takaichi said that the right to collective self-defense could be exercised (to assist an allied nation).

Addressing a parliamentary committee, she said that a military conflict involving warships and the use of force in the Taiwan conflict would pose a direct threat to Japan's existence. She said that the situation was very serious and that Japan should prepare for the worst possible outcome.

China, however, has not ruled out the possibility of using force to seize Taiwan. The controversy was further exacerbated by a post by Chinese Consul General in Osaka, Xue Jian, on social media ‘X’ regarding Prime Minister Takaichi’s remarks on Taiwan.

Consul Jian said on ‘X’, “We have no choice but to cut off the throat of that scum that has grown on us without hesitation. Are you ready?”

Xue's post was removed shortly after it was posted. Tokyo officials have condemned the post as “highly inappropriate.”

“We strongly protested and asked for the post to be removed,” Minoru Kihara, a senior Japanese government spokesman, told reporters. He said he was also aware of Shue’s many other inappropriate comments.

Japan has long struggled with the question of how to play its role in a potential conflict between China and Taiwan. Taiwan is just 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Japan’s western island of Yonaguni.

Japan’s constitution prohibits the use of force to resolve international disputes. However, a law passed in 2015 under then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe allows for the use of collective self-defense in certain circumstances, even if Japan is not directly attacked.

Such scenarios are likely to involve Japanese support for U.S.-led military action.