China freezes exchange programmes with Japan amid Taiwan dispute
China has suspended youth exchange programmes with Japan in response to comments by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Taiwan, a diplomatic source told the South China Morning Post.
The development stoked concern that political tensions are now spilling into relations between younger generations.
According to the source, Tokyo was informed of the cancellations shortly after Beijing launched retaliatory measures over Takaichi’s November 7 remarks, in which she suggested Japan could deploy military forces in the event of a conflict in the Taiwan Strait.
“Usually, November and December are the season for youth exchanges, but now they have all been called off,” the source said.
The freeze comes as Beijing intensifies pressure on Tokyo to force Takaichi to retract her statement, which she has refused to do.
China has advised its citizens against travelling to Japan and urged students to reconsider studying there, citing safety concerns. It has also postponed planned diplomatic meetings, including a trilateral summit with Japan and South Korea that Tokyo was due to host.
The disruption is already affecting scheduled school visits.
Earlier this month, 16 students and teachers from Wuxi in Jiangsu province cancelled a sister-city trip to Sagamihara in Kanagawa prefecture, according to Japanese officials.
In Okinawa, education authorities said Chinese partners had abruptly scrapped a two-week language and cultural exchange to Shanghai for 20 high school students set to begin this weekend.
Scholars say the halt risks deepening hostility between the two countries at a time when ties are strained by territorial disputes in the East China Sea and Tokyo’s closer alignment with Washington to counter China.
Shin Kawashima, an international relations professor at the University of Tokyo, described the suspension as worrying, warning that youth exchanges had long been seen as crucial stabilising tools when diplomacy faltered.
Earlier in November, Takaichi said Japan could consider deploying military forces if conflict erupted in the Taiwan Strait, arguing that instability around Taiwan — which lies close to Japan’s southwestern islands — would directly threaten Japan’s security.
Beijing condemned the comments as a violation of its “one-China” principle and an attempt to interfere in its internal affairs, demanding a public retraction.
Takaichi has since maintained that her remarks were consistent with Japan’s national security policy.
This story is written and edited by the Global South World team, you can contact us here.
