It would be wonderful if China did that. My only concern is that China's current demand is simply for Japan to retract its previous provocations, and then everything will return to normal. I have a strong feeling things will develop that way.
I've been pondering whether China has truly reached a point of no return. We all know that escalating diplomatic incidents are often influenced by the domestic environment. China's economic difficulties clearly haven't reached the point where an external conflict is needed to divert attention, and its domestic politics are quite stable, with no need to create an additional enemy for immediate confrontation.
My conclusion is that China might use this diplomatic conflict to deter countries attempting to provoke China on the Taiwan issue. If Japan yields, then apart from the United States, no other country will dare to provoke China on the Taiwan issue. This will create a relatively stable international environment for China's economic development. I hope I'm just overthinking things.
Japan will never retract that statement, no matter what China does. Hatred of China is the core ideology of Japan's existence now. People think Japan is a US vassal and controlled by US. No, US-Japan alliance is entirely by choice by Japan.
Japan wants US to be there cause of their extreme fear and hatred of China. They want to keep China down and they thought US could do that. That's why Japan stayed in the US alliance when they could have gotten out long ago.
It should be understood by everyone that every single US "vassal" in east asia whether its Korea, Japan, Philippines or Australia are not vassals but willing subordinate of US empire. They all have a reason to be part of this empire by choice. They could easily get out of US alliance by passing a law to oust US forces and get out of the alliance. But they will never do that because population of these countries genuinely believe they need US.
It mostly comes from western worship, extreme hatred for China and fear of China's rise. They basically like how they used to operate but hate the fact that China's rise is changing that order.
China will have to overpower these countries in order to change their mindset. This could be through economic sanctions combined with military pressure. It could be full scale war. But there has to be pressure put on to these places. China will not regain its dominant position in east asia for free. They will have to fight for it against those very neighbours.