Taiwan’s President, Lai Ching-te, has chosen to publicly express his support for Japan by photographing himself having lunch with sushi and miso soup, two famous Japanese specialties. This is an act of communication that can be seen in the context of a serious diplomatic crisis between China and Japan, which concerns Taiwan, an autonomously and democratically governed island that China claims as its own and threatens to conquer by force.
The choice of sushi is not arbitrary. In fact, China has once again suspended imports of fish products from Japan as part of harsh retaliation for statements by Japan’s new nationalist prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, who said in parliament that Japan would respond militarily to the “real threat” of a possible Chinese attack on Taiwan. China, along with Hong Kong, has always been a major overseas market for fish, crustaceans and mollusks caught in Japan.
President Lai said it was a good time to eat Japanese food, and invited people to go to Japan and shop for Japanese goods as a form of support for the Chinese regime’s retaliation, which advised its citizens not to do the same.
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