S8 Ep176: Japan Stands Up for Taiwan While Canada Demurs: Colleagues Charles Burton and Gordon Chang report that Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi recently declared that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be a "survival threatening situation" for Japan, authorizing

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John Batchelor

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🗓️ 9 December 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

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Summary

Japan Stands Up for Taiwan While Canada Demurs: Colleagues Charles Burton and Gordon Chang report that Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi recently declared that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be a "survival threatening situation" for Japan, authorizing the mobilization of self-defense forces; this statement has triggered a massive propaganda campaign from Beijing demanding a retraction, as a successful invasion of Taiwan would likely require violating Japanese sovereignty, while in contrast Canada remains reluctant to support Tokyo or criticize Beijing, hoping to secure trade benefits and diversify exports away from the U.S., leaving Japan isolated by its allies.
1937 SHANGHAI

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0:00.0	This is CBSI on the world.
0:07.2	I'm John Baxter.
0:08.0	Gordon Chang is here.
0:09.0	My colleague and co-host and Charles Burton, author of the extremely helpful Beaver and the Dragon,
0:14.5	his new book about the troubled relationship between Canada and Beijing over these last years to do with threats
0:23.8	and brutality and mysteries. However, we're going to begin, not with Ottawa and Beijing,
0:30.0	we're going to begin with a threat and a mystery and brutality about Tokyo.
0:36.5	Gordon, if I understand it correctly,
0:38.4	the incident that we covered, I believe, in conversation one night,
0:43.0	the new Prime Minister of Tokyo, Taki-Chi-Chi-Sinai,
0:46.5	being blunt in a statement during the questions about Taiwan,
0:52.0	in which the new Prime Minister said,
0:53.9	if Taiwan is attacked by People's Republic of China,
0:57.0	we will consider an attack on us and we will defend ourselves and defend Taiwan.
1:04.0	Yes, that's been established for some time by the previous prime minister as well, a previous, several previous prime ministers.
1:11.7	But since then, Beijing has been acting oddly, making threats, even at the point of cutting the head of the prime minister off, something like that.
1:21.7	And then Wang Yi shows up in Moscow to sit with Lavrov and ask for help.
1:27.0	What's going on, Gordon? What does this mean?
1:29.4	And then do you have a question for Charles accordingly? Thank you, Gordon. Well, thank you, John.
1:35.9	On November 7th, Takeichi, the prime minister, said that if China were to invade Taiwan,
1:43.1	that would be a survival-threatening situation, quote-unquote.
1:47.2	That refers to the 2015 national security law of Japan. And that means she would have the authority
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