China halts Japanese cultural events after tensions rise over Taiwan remarks

Japan's "Empress of Pop" Ayumi Hamasaki stood alone on a brightly lit stage in Shanghai, her voice echoing through a stadium filled with empty seats.

Hours before showtime, she was informed that her concert could not proceed with an audience for "an inevitable reason".

The vague explanation has become familiar to organisers of Japanese cultural events in China in recent weeks.

She chose to perform anyway, singing to more than 14,000 empty chairs. 

Later, she wrote that the unusual concert had become one of her most memorable.

Her quiet, determined performance came just one day after another Japanese singer faced a much more abrupt interruption.

Maki Otsuki, best known for singing the theme song of the popular anime One Piece, had only just begun her set at Bandai Namco Festival in Shanghai when the venue suddenly went dark.

Her microphone was cut, the stage lights were switched off, and two staff members led her away as confused fans looked on.

The organisers soon informed the audience that the performance was cancelled due to "inevitable reasons", before calling off the rest of the day's programming.

Silenced pop stars are just one example of how relations between China and Japan have continued to sour since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's controversial comments about Taiwan in November.

More events cancelled

The two Shanghai concerts' cancellations are not isolated incidents.

In total, more than 20 Japanese events scheduled between late November and early December have been called off with little warning.

Last month, 80-year-old jazz musician Yoshio Suzuki was preparing for a show in Beijing when plain-clothes police told the venue that all performances with Japanese participants needed to be cancelled.

His concert and several upcoming shows at the same club were immediately halted.

Within days, cancellations or postponements of cultural events had spread across the country.

These included performances by Japanese jazz pianist Hiromi Uehara, a new Crayon Shin-chan film — from the hugely popular Japanese manga and anime series — and an 18-city tour of the Sailor Moon musical.

Comedy shows planned by Japanese entertainment company Yoshimoto Kogyo during the Shanghai Comedy Festival were also dropped.

The cancellations came after Ms Takaichi told the Japanese parliament last month that a hypothetical Chinese attack on democratically ruled Taiwan could trigger a military response from Tokyo.

Her comments sparked a furious response from Chinese officials, with one diplomat threatening to "cut off that dirty neck" — in an apparent reference to the Japanese leader.

In another escalation on Tuesday, Japan's coast guard said Chinese coast guard patrol ships entered Japan's territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, a flashpoint between the two nations.

Li Hao, an associate professor at the University of Tokyo's Graduate Schools for Law and Politics, said Beijing had interpreted Ms Takaichi's comment to mean that Tokyo had shifted its long-standing position.

That position, outlined in a 1972 communique between the two countries, was that Japan supported Beijing's One China policy, that there was only one Chinese state, and Taiwan was part of China.

"If Japan had not raised those questions about Taiwan, China would not be tightening cultural controls in this way," Dr Li said.

"They will argue it is Japan that changed its position, not China. Few outside China would accept that logic, but that is how they see it."

'Enemy state clauses'

The diplomatic mood darkened further when China's embassy in Tokyo issued a social media post in November that referenced "enemy state clauses" in a UN charter.

It stated that if countries like Japan took steps toward renewed aggression, countries like China have the right to take military action.

The post was widely interpreted in Japan as a veiled warning, but experts argued Beijing was signalling political displeasure rather than implying any real possibility of military action. 

"This is more about expressing anger than making a strategic threat," Dr Li said.

"China sees itself as reacting to Japan's shift on Taiwan, not changing its own position.

"I don't think the enemy state clauses are a real issue — it's just talk."

Japan quickly denounced the remarks as inaccurate and outdated, pointing out that the UN General Assembly recommended deleting the clauses nearly 30 years ago and that China voted in favour of doing so.

Jeffrey Hall, a lecturer at Kanda University of International Studies in Japan, said that while Japan was not trying to provoke China, many in Japan found China's rhetoric unsettling.

Beijing's approach, Dr Hall added, could harden anti-China sentiment at home.

"If China used this as a pretext to attack Japan, I don't think the major powers in the UN would recognise it as a legitimate reason," he said.