Tokyo defence involvement in Taiwan would amount to aggression against Beijing: UN envoy

China’s envoy to the United Nations, Fu Cong, has warned that any military involvement by Japan in the Taiwan issue would amount to aggression against Beijing, which would “retaliate resolutely”.Fu told a UN meeting on Wednesday that Tokyo had publicly tied the question of the island’s defence to what it called an existential crisis and that Japan was “attempting to intervene militarily in the Taiwan issue under the guise of collective self-defence”.But those were “fallacies” that betrayed Japan’s international obligations, he said, calling for vigilance and opposition from all peace-loving nations, according to state broadcaster CCTV.“No matter what pretext Japan uses to exercise its so-called collective self-defence rights and intervene in the Taiwan issue, it would constitute an aggression against China, and China will certainly retaliate resolutely,” he said.Fu made the comments as the United States and Japan kicked off their annual Iron Fist joint military drills, which Chinese state media has portrayed as an attempt to meddle in the Taiwan question.Remarks about Taiwan by Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s prime minister, in November sparked months of tensions between Beijing and Tokyo. Photo: ReutersBy framing any Japanese involvement in the Taiwan issue as an aggression against Beijing, Fu’s comments appeared to go beyond earlier Chinese criticism of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remarks to Japan’s parliament in November.