China and Japan are escalating diplomatic tensions over provisions in the UN Charter that refer to former Axis powers, with Japan dismissing the clause as outdated. Beijing has warned Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi against military involvement in the Taiwan dispute, citing UN Charter Article 53, which allows enforcement actions against enemy states without Security Council approval.
Japan has criticized China’s interpretation as a misreading of obsolete clauses and accused it of attempting to restrict Japan’s defense posture. The Chinese Embassy in Tokyo published an excerpt from the UN Charter detailing Article 53, which permits regional enforcement measures against nations with a history of aggression, without prior Security Council authorization. This move came as Beijing lodged an official complaint over Takaichi’s remarks supporting the self-governing administration on Taiwan, which they interpreted as a potential signal of Japanese militarism.
Japan’s Foreign Ministry dismissed these accusations, arguing that the UN General Assembly recommended removing the ‘enemy state’ references in 1995, but the formal amendment process was never completed. Japan’s Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi recently visited a military base on Yonaguni, an island about 110km east of Taiwan, and reiterated plans to deploy medium-range surface-to-air missiles there as part of a broader build-up on Japan’s southern island chain.
Meanwhile, Russia also has outstanding issues with Japan, with whom it still has no formal peace treaty. Tokyo continues to insist on its claim to the four southernmost Kuril Islands, known in Japan as the ‘northern territories,’ which became part of the USSR after World War 2 and remain a long-standing focal point for Japanese nationalists.