Yomiuri: Takaichi Shelved Plan to Expel Chinese Consul General Xue Jian After Beijing Warned of Double Retaliation
Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun reported on November 8, 2026, citing Japanese government sources, that Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi had instructed officials last November to tell Beijing that Japan was considering declaring Chinese Consul General in Osaka Xue Jian persona non grata and expelling him, and that she shelved the plan after a Chinese Foreign Ministry official warned Japan face-to-face that 'if Japan expels one, China will expel two.' The report is part of a Yomiuri series on Japan-China relations one year after Takaichi's Diet remarks on a Taiwan contingency.
The dispute began on November 7, 2025, when Takaichi linked a Taiwan contingency to Japan's exercise of collective self-defense in Diet testimony, drawing strong opposition from China. Xue Jian then posted in Japanese on social media that he would 'cut off that dirty head' of anyone claiming Japan would intervene. The post was later deleted but sparked controversy in Japan, with voices in the ruling party calling for Xue's expulsion.
According to the Yomiuri, about a week after the testimony Takaichi met Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara and Foreign Ministry officials and instructed them to convey that, unless Xue returned home early, Japan would consider declaring him persona non grata and expelling him. When Masaaki Kanai, director general of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, conveyed this in Beijing to Liu Jinsong, director general of the Chinese Foreign Ministry's Department of Asian Affairs, Liu named a Japanese consul general in China and said that if Japan expelled one, China would expel two.
The paper said Tokyo had envisioned a settlement in which each side expelled one diplomat at a similar cost. Beijing's warning of double retaliation went beyond that scenario, and Takaichi, fearing an escalation of reprisals would further damage bilateral relations, decided to shelve the expulsion plan. Neither the Japanese government nor China's Foreign Ministry had publicly commented on the Yomiuri disclosure as of publication. (Source: The Yomiuri Shimbun)
Source: The Yomiuri Shimbun
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：日本首相高市早苗2025年10月出席亚太经合组织峰会期间资料图。日本内阁官房摄，CC BY 4.0 授权，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at the APEC summit in October 2025 (file photo). Cabinet Secretariat of Japan, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
