China has once more escalated a minor diplomatic skirmish with Japan, by urging its citizens to avoid travelling to the country and hauling in Tokyo’s ambassador over Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remarks about potential involvement in a Taiwan crisis, according to a BBC report.

The flare-up marks Beijing’s latest effort to frame Japan as the perennial aggressor, even as Tokyo has spent decades trying to stabilise relations with China - issuing repeated, formal apologies for its actions during the Second World War and attempting painstaking rapprochement. Those efforts have done little to blunt Beijing’s habit of weaponising history whenever political tensions rise.

They also come at a particularly raw moment in Japan, as two high-profile knife attacks on Japanese children studying in China by locals last year have shocked the public, and deepened anxieties about Beijing’s increasingly hostile tone.

The latest row began after Takaichi told the Japanese parliament last week that an armed Chinese assault on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” under Japan’s 2015 security laws - language that would legally permit the future deployment of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces. Beijing denounced the comments as egregious, while a Chinese diplomat in Osaka went dramatically further, posting online that the Japanese prime minister should be decapitated.

Tokyo protested sharply, calling the remark “highly inappropriate,” while Beijing lodged its own complaint accusing Japan of meddling in China’s internal affairs – a routine ‘go-to’ when the international community interacts with or comments on Taiwan.

The Chinese government then followed up with a public warning to Japan to “stop playing with fire,” insisting any involvement in a Taiwan contingency would be considered an “act of aggression.”

By November 13, Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong had summoned Japan’s ambassador, demanding that Takaichi withdraw her comments and warning that “all consequences must be borne by Japan”, the BBC added. Hours later, China’s heavily guarded embassy in Tokyo urged Chinese citizens to avoid travelling to Japan.

Beijing’s sharp rhetoric once again invoked wartime history - a familiar playbook in moments of bilateral strain. China’s foreign ministry reminded Japan to “draw lessons from history,” hinting darkly at “heavy losses” should Tokyo “dare” to intervene in the Taiwan Strait.

But Japan has repeatedly attempted to move beyond historical grievances. Successive prime ministers - from Murayama in 1995 to Koizumi in 2005 to Abe in 2015 - have issued formal apologies, expressed remorse, and acknowledged wartime suffering across Asia. Tokyo has also poured years of diplomatic effort and billions of dollars into stabilising ties, even as Beijing often revives past wounds to score cheap political points.

Takaichi, a conservative leader aligned with the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has long argued that Japan cannot ignore the security implications of a crisis involving its neighbour Taiwan - a viewpoint increasingly shared across Japan’s political spectrum as China ramps up military activities near the island.

As the Washington Post and other international media outlets have pointed out, Takaichi has refused to withdraw her comments, saying that they are consistent with government policy, signalled a shift from Japan’s long-standing strategy of strategic ambiguity. As such, Tokyo’s official line remains that Taiwan issues should be resolved peacefully, but the political mood in Tokyo has changed dramatically as China grows more assertive and as Beijing’s army of online warriors take to social media to attack Japan.

China, for now, continues to interpret even cautious statements as hostile acts, asking publicly whether Japan is “up to challenge China’s core interests” and accusing Tokyo of emboldening Taiwanese independence.

For Japan, the irony is becoming increasingly pointed: while it offers repeated reassurances, Beijing continues to lash out, casting Tokyo as a destabilising actor even as its own diplomats issue thinly-veiled threats and its state media works to stoke anti-Japanese sentiment.

The question now is whether this latest dispute will fade like so many before it - or whether it marks the beginning of a more confrontational phase in a relationship that, despite Japan’s consistent efforts at reconciliation, remains perpetually one spark away from crisis.