China Says Japan Fully Responsible for Severe Difficulties in Ties

The explicit attribution of full responsibility to Tokyo marks a hardening of the public framing rather than a new dispute, and it keeps the Taiwan remarks as the anchor of the grievance a year on. This is a diplomatic signal aimed as much at domestic and regional audiences as at Japan, and it matters for firms and officials exposed to cross-strait and Sino-Japanese political risk. Whether Beijing moves beyond rhetoric into concrete measures, and whether Tokyo offers any corrective language on the remarks, is the open question.