A rare mention of Taiwan as a footnote in the official Japanese policy guidelines could signal further warming of Taiwan-Japan ties, as the news came on top of reports that Japan is considering dispatching Self-Defense Force officers to Taiwan.
A Japanese newspaper reported that Japan’s Cabinet yesterday ratified the Basic Policies for Economic and Fiscal Management and Reform, which includes a footnote on the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
The Japanese government uses the guidelines to draft economic policies and oversee fiscal management.
Photo: AP
The Japanese-language Asahi Shimbun reported that the Liberal Democratic Party Congress had been divided on whether the guidelines should include a clear statement to “deepen collaboration with Taiwan,” but later decided to reference the statement following a leaders’ summit between US President Joe Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Yoshihide Suga in April last year, as Japan has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
The congress on Monday approved adding the summit’s wording — that Japan “underscores the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and encourages the peaceful resolution of cross-strait issues” — as a footnote in the guidelines.
Taiwan was last mentioned in a US-Japan leaders’ statement in 1969, when then-US president Richard Nixon met with then-Japanese prime minister Eisaku Sato.
Minoru Kihara, a member of the Liberal Democratic Party’s Policy Affairs Research Council, said that the mention of Taiwan in the guidelines, even as a footnote, was “very rare.”
Party members’ demand that the mention of Taiwan be moved from the footnote to the body of the guidelines would be handled by council chairwoman Sanae Takaichi, Kihara said.
In Taipei, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) yesterday said that Taiwan welcomes any positive measure that contributes to heightening the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
Taiwan would continue to collaborate and deepen relations with like-minded partners such as Japan to jointly defend the common values of democracy and freedom, Ou said.
Ou declined to comment on reports that Japan might dispatch serving Self-Defense Force officers to Taiwan.
The guidelines ratified yesterday also state that Japan would drastically increase defense spending “within the next five years.”
Neither the five-year period nor the reference to Taiwan had figured in a draft version of the document last week.
By contrast, last year’s version of the guidelines said only that Japan would significantly increase defense spending as necessary.
The document — which includes issues ranging from energy security to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s “new capitalism” — does not assign an amount to Japan’s commitment to “drastically strengthen” defense spending.
However, the guidelines did refer to the commitment of many NATO members to spend 2 percent of GDP on defense. Japan now spends just over 1 percent of GDP on its Self-Defense Forces.
Additional reporting by Reuters
RISK REMAINS: An official said that with the US presidential elections so close, it is unclear if China would hold war games or keep its reaction to angry words The Ministry of National Defense said it was “on alert” as it detected a Chinese aircraft carrier group to Taiwan’s south yesterday amid concerns in Taiwan about the possibility of a new round of Chinese war games. The ministry said in a statement that a Chinese navy group led by the carrier Liaoning had entered waters near the Bashi Channel, which connects the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean and separates Taiwan from the Philippines. It said the carrier group was expected to enter the Western Pacific. The military is keeping a close watch on developments and “exercising an
FIVE-YEAR WINDOW? A defense institute CEO said a timeline for a potential Chinese invasion was based on expected ‘tough measures’ when Xi Jinping seeks a new term Most Taiwanese are willing to defend the nation against a Chinese attack, but the majority believe Beijing is unlikely to invade within the next five years, a poll showed yesterday. The poll carried out last month was commissioned by the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a Taipei-based think tank, and released ahead of Double Ten National Day today, when President William Lai (賴清德) is to deliver a speech. China maintains a near-daily military presence around Taiwan and has held three rounds of war games in the past two years. CIA Director William Burns last year said that Chinese President Xi Jinping
RESILIENCE: Once the system is operational, there would be no need to worry about the risks posed by disasters or other emergencies on communication systems, an official said Taiwan would have 24-hour access to low Earth orbit satellites by the end of this month through service provided by Eutelsat OneWeb as part of the nation’s effort to enhance signal resilience, a Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) official said yesterday. Earlier this year the Ministry of Digital Affairs, which partnered with Chunghwa Telecom on a two-year project to boost signal resilience throughout the nation, said it reached a milestone when it made contact with OneWeb’s satellites half of the time. It expects to have the capability to maintain constant contact with the satellites and have nationwide coverage by the end
REACTION TO LAI: A former US official said William Lai took a step toward stability with his National Day speech and the question was how Beijing would respond US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday warned China against taking any “provocative” action on Taiwan after Beijing’s reaction to President William Lai’s (賴清德) speech on Double Ten National Day on Thursday. Blinken, speaking in Laos after an ASEAN East Asia Summit, called the speech by Lai, in which he vowed to “resist annexation,” a “regular exercise.” “China should not use it in any fashion as a pretext for provocative actions,” Blinken told reporters. “On the contrary, we want to reinforce — and many other countries want to reinforce — the imperative of preserving the status quo, and neither party taking any
RSS