China bans export of dual-use items for military purposes to Japan over Taiwan remarks

BEIJING – China imposed controls on exports to Japan that could have military use, intensifying

a dispute between Asia’s top economies

over remarks Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made in 2025 on Taiwan.

All dual-use items are banned from being exported to Japan for military use effective immediately, China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on Jan 6.

Exports “for any other end-user purposes that could enhance Japan’s military capabilities” are also prohibited, it added, without elaborating.

“Japan’s leader recently made erroneous remarks on Taiwan, hinting at the possibility of military intervention in the Taiwan Strait,” a ministry spokesperson said in a statement.

Those comments violated the One-China principle and were “malicious nature with profoundly detrimental consequences”, the spokesperson added.

Japan’s foreign ministry said it strongly protested the measures and demanded that China withdraw them. It called the move “absolutely unacceptable and deeply regrettable”. It said the measures targeted only Japan and that they “deviate significantly from international practice”.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the curbs were largely symbolic or would have a significant impact on Japan.  

China restricted rare earths exports in global measures rolled out in 2024 during US President Donald Trump’s trade war.

Rare earths and the magnets made from them are used heavily by militaries in weapons like fighter jets, drones and missiles, and are relied on for manufacturing goods such as smartphones and electric vehicles.

Japan relied on China for around 70 per cent of its rare earth imports as of 2024, according to the Japan Organisation for Metals and Energy Security.

China’s catalogue of dual-use goods also includes drones, nuclear materials and facilities, aerospace engine components and specialist alloys.

The curbs mark the latest move in a pressure campaign against Japan, after Ms Takaichi suggested that

Tokyo could deploy its military

if Beijing attempted to seize Taiwan, which China claims as its own.

Despite restrictions on Japanese seafood imports and a travel boycott by some Chinese citizens, Japan’s leader has refused to retract her comments, as China demands, maintaining that her country’s policy remains unchanged. 

China’s measures come during South Korean President

Lee Jae Myung’s visit this week to Beijing

, where the nation’s leader Xi Jinping has urged him to stand on the right side of history. BLOOMBERG, REUTERS