TOKYO/BEIJING – China may rethink its escalating pressure campaign on Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi if she delivers a resounding victory in a Feb. 8 snap election, say current and former Japanese officials and political analysts.
Weeks after taking office last year, Takaichi touched off the biggest diplomatic dispute with Beijing in over a decade, by publicly outlining how Tokyo might respond to a Chinese attack on Taiwan, the self-ruled island claimed by China.
Beijing demanded she retract the remarks, which she has not done, ?and then rolled out a series of retaliatory measures that are starting to weigh on the world’s fourth largest economy.
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