TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — China no longer regards Japan as a neutral party, therefore democratic countries should form alliances, Taiwan’s envoy in Tokyo Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said Friday (March 24).

He said the quote from late Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo that “if Taiwan has a problem, then Japan also has a problem” had changed from a concept into reality, CNA reported.

China’s People's Liberation Army (PLA) did not see Japan as a neutral bystander anymore, Hsieh told a seminar in Taipei City also attended by Vice President Lai Ching-te (賴清德).

Hsieh pointed out how, in the wake of United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last August, five of the missiles fired by China during exercises landed in Japan’s economic waters. The missiles did not miss, but hit their target, as the location of their fall was not a coincidence, he said.

All democracies need to improve their capability to defend themselves and expand their defense budget. Nobody would help a country which did not make an effort to defend itself, according to Hsieh.

Neither surrender nor war were options for Taiwan, as surrender was a dead-end street turning the country into a springboard for Chinese threats against Japan and the U.S., he said.