A Japanese lawmaker born in China told a Taipei security forum that Taiwan and Japan share the same fate and must drop any hope of getting along with Beijing — a hard-line message aimed at politicians in both countries who still favor engagement.

• Japanese senator Seihei Ishi, who took part in China's democracy movement before moving to Japan, called the Chinese Communist Party an evil dictatorship that does not value human life.
• His warning: any compromise with Beijing leads to your own destruction, and only strength stops it from acting.
• He argued Taiwan and Japan are joined at the hip — if China swallows Taiwan, Japan's own defense and security guarantees collapse.
• He said too many politicians and ordinary people in both countries still hold illusions about a friendly China.

Outlook: Expect more Taiwan-Japan security talk along these lines, with pressure building on Tokyo to treat Taiwan's defense as its own.