Potential Japanese acquisition of nuclear weapons is an under-appreciated deterrent to a Chinese attempt at seizing Taiwan.
If China took Taiwan, Japan would surely activate what we must presume to be well-established plans to rapidly equip itself with nuclear weapons.
The prospect of a nuclear-armed Japan is unappealing to the Chinese Communist Party not just because a neighbouring rival would thereby become much harder to handle. Facing that situation, Beijing would have to choose between, on the one hand, the domestic and regional political cost of acquiescence and, on the other hand, the enormous international cost of pre-emptive war on Japan.
Contemplating their options over Taiwan, all this must already be on the minds of China’s senior leaders, including President Xi Jinping.
China annexing Taiwan by force would constitute a survival-threatening situation for Japan, even if the action failed to precipitate the full removal of the United States from Asia. If the US were pushed out of Asia, Japan’s position would be worse still.
by The Strategist – Revolting for the CCP: seizing Taiwan could drive Japan to nuclear weapons
