China’s Foreign Ministry has begun referring to Japanese leader Sanae Takaichi by name alone, omitting her title of prime minister, a shift that a Hong Kong newspaper has described as a diplomatic “downgrade” toward Tokyo, according to a report by Taiwan’s Central News Agency.
The Sing Tao Daily reported that Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun used only Takaichi’s name at the regular press briefing on September 30, when responding to a question about Japan’s discussion of nuclear weapons without taboos. The paper stressed that Beijing’s foreign ministry is known for carefully weighing its wording, so the omission was unlikely to be a slip of the tongue. A review of the ministry’s published transcript confirmed that no title was used.
The paper traced a gradual change in how Beijing addresses her. When Takaichi took office last October, China called her Japan’s prime minister. A month later, after she advanced the idea that a Taiwan contingency could affect Japan, Chinese officials switched to terms such as “the Japanese ruling authorities” and “Japan’s current leader.” More recently, after she urged the removal of the “enemy state clauses” from the United Nations Charter during the UN General Assembly in New York, the spokesperson referred on September 23 to the “current Japanese regime,” calling it a prominent threat to regional peace and stability.
Sing Tao said China had now dropped even the title, likening the progression to moving a guest from a VIP room to the corridor and finally out of the hall, with courtesy and respect both withdrawn. The article concluded that relations between the two countries have not improved and that recent provocative words and actions from senior Japanese officials have inflamed tensions further.
Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), October 2, 2026
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202610020039.aspx