Major Chinese airlines are cancelling all flights to Japan next month, ahead of the Lunar New Year travel rush.
Flight data shows all scheduled flights between China and Japan have been cancelled for February.
The Chinese airlines cited travel advisories that discourage Chinese tourists from visiting Japan.
The timing is significant since February aligns with the Lunar New Year holiday. It is typically one of the busiest travel periods of the year for China.
On Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said she is willing to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Speaking at a debate with other political leaders, Takaichi said she is positive about meeting Xi to make sure Japan’s position is understood.
Chinese airlines have been scaling back on flights to Japan.
The latest move signals China’s ramp up of pressure against Japan.
Tensions between China and Japan have been high since last November when Takaichi said a Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger Japan’s military response to protect the country’s interests.
Beijing has since taken a series of hostile actions and punitive measures against Japan including locking radar on Japanese aircraft, entering Japanese territorial waters near Japan-controlled Senkaku Islands by Chinese Coast Guard, cancelling Chinese concerts of Japanese pop stars, and banning imports of Japanese seafood.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) claims Taiwan as its own, despite the Taiwanese people democratically electing its own government since the country first held elections in 1994.
Punitive Measures in the Past
The CCP is known for using coercive trade actions to force countries to submit to its demand.
In 2023, Beijing imposed a blanket ban on imports of all Japanese seafood after Japan released radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific, despite the UN International Atomic Energy Agency concluding it was safe.
In 2010, China halted rare earth exports to Japan for about seven weeks after Japanese authorities detained a Chinese fishing captain whose vessel had collided with the coast guard ships near the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands.
Beijing had imposed export controls globally on five rare-earths recently on Oct. 9 last year, bringing the total rare-earth export control to 12, widely seen as leverage in its trade negotiations with the US.
