On Wednesday last week, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida reshuffled his Cabinet and key party posts, while South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol carried out a partial Cabinet reshuffle, naming new ministers of defense, culture and gender equality on the same day.
The reshuffles signal a pivot in policy direction, ie, that Japan and South Korea stand with the US to safeguard democratic values and confront autocratic China.
Kishida has introduced several right-wing, pro-Taiwan elites into his new Cabinet lineup. A while ago, as chairman of the Formosa Republican Association, I met with Japanese Minister of State for Economic Security Sanae Takaichi, a holdover from the previous Cabinet.
In terms of internal party politics, Kishida retained former Japanese prime minister Taro Aso as vice president of the Liberal Democratic Party. Aso has encouraged the Japanese government to demonstrate strong resolve to come to Taiwan’s defense if it were attacked.
However, the key change was the replacement of Seiji Kihara as deputy chief Cabinet secretary. Kihara was one of Kishida’s closest confidants and a policy architect who put Kishida in line to become prime minister.
However, Kihara seemed to be sitting on the fence regarding China. He once predicted that China would only have another 10 years of growth, and when he was minister of foreign affairs, he believed that Japan could keep a balanced approach between the US and China, and that China’s peaceful development would be an opportunity, not a threat.
Kihara emphasized that Japan would not hold China back and even pushed for Chinese to have visa-free entry into the nation. His moderate approach had many pundits worrying whether Kishida’s Cabinet would be as tough on countering China as the administration of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe was.
To put these concerns to rest, Kishida replaced Kihara with Japanese Representative Hideki Murai.
Another notable addition to the Cabinet is former Japanese minister of justice Yoko Kamikawa, who is familiar with South Korean affairs. She replaced the pro-China Yoshimasa Hayashi to become Japan’s first female minister of foreign affairs in nearly two decades.
New Japanese Minister of Defense Minoru Kihara is a pro-Taiwan politician and a member of a bipartisan parliamentary group that promotes Japan-Taiwan relations. When Minoru Kihara visited Yonaguni Island in July, he and Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫?) traveled together by boat to Yilan County.
Kishida is sending a clear message to the US that he is ramping up an aggressive anti-communist campaign by improving the US-Japan-South Korea partnership to counter China and safeguard Taiwan.
South Korea’s reshuffle echoed Japan’s approach, with the key shakeup being the resignation of minister of defense Lee Jong-sup on Tuesday last week. Lee met with former Chinese minister of national defense Wei Fenghe (魏鳳和) and Chinese Minister of National Defense Li Shangfu (李尚福) on multiple occasions in the hope that China would help to contain North Korea’s nuclear threat.
Lee even harbored the hope that collaboration between the US, Japan and South Korea would help mend the South Korea-China relationship.
It is safe to assume Lee still has hopes that China would “come around.”
With the resignation of Lee, Yoon nominated lawmaker and retired three-star general Shin Won-sik as defense minister. As one of the core members of Yoon’s political campaign, Shin has consistently held a hardline stance against China. When he was a lawmaker, he once called Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Xing Haiming (邢海明) the most arrogant diplomat Seoul had ever seen, calling on the government to expel Xing unless he issued an apology.
Kishida’s forced decision to replace his closest aide, Hayashi, with Kamikawa and the appointment of Minoru Kihara as defense minister, coupled with Shin taking the defense post in Seoul show that Japan and South Korea are openly aligned against Beijing.
Meanwhile, China is falling apart, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) cleansing the military. Unexplained personnel changes at the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force seem to confirm rumors of a purge of corrupt generals, including Li.
The Stalinist-style purge has put the entire army into disarray.
No wonder US President Joe Biden said that China’s recent downturn could diminish any inclination by Beijing to invade Taiwan and that the country’s economic troubles have left his Chinese counterpart with “his hands full.”
Tommy Lin is director of Wu Fu Eye Clinic and president of the Formosa Republican Association.
Translated by Rita Wang
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