East Asia could be the next Ukraine, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Saturday, adding that he had conveyed this message to Western leaders in recent talks, urging them to join a united front on a rising China and bellicose North Korea.
At the start of Japan’s year-long G7 presidency, Kishida visited leaders of all members of the elite club except Germany, where he plans to go soon.
Closing his trip in Washington, Kishida said he shared with G7 leaders his “strong sense of crisis regarding the security environment in East Asia.”
Photo: EPA-EFE
“Ukraine may be the East Asia of tomorrow,” Kishida told a news conference a day after meeting US President Joe Biden, calling security concerns in Europe and East Asia “inseparable.”
“The situation around Japan is becoming increasingly severe with attempts to unilaterally change the status quo by force in the East China Sea and South China Sea, and the activation of North Korea’s nuclear and missile activities,” he said.
Kishida was referring to China’s growing assertiveness in the two areas, where Beijing has a slew of island disputes including with Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam.
Photo: REUTERS / Kyodo
China in August also fired missiles into Japan’s exclusive economic zone when it conducted major military exercises around Taiwan.
Kishida traveled to Washington after his administration announced that Japan would double its defense spending over the next five years, a sea change for a country that has been officially pacifist since its defeat in World War II.
Kishida said he would work to “explain thoroughly to the public” the need to use tax money to ramp up defense spending to 2 percent of GDP — a goal separately set by NATO that more countries are accepting since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Among other steps taken under a new defense strategy, Japan would develop “counterstrike” capacity to hit threatening launch sites and hopes to buy hundreds of Tomahawk cruise missiles, now only in the arsenals of the US and the UK.
Kishida said he spoke with the British and Italian prime ministers about moving a three-way development of a next-generation fighter jet that uses artificial intelligence.
Kishida said Japan has not yet decided whether to join the US on one measure that has especially irritated China — cutting it off from imports of semiconductors critical for advanced technology.
“Semiconductors are part of economic security including for the United States and like-minded countries. We want to have closer communication to think about how to treat this issue,” Kishida said.
Japan is proud to be the only Asian member of the G7, and Kishida has said that his administration’s response on Ukraine effectively internationalized Western-led opposition to Russia’s invasion.
In turn, Kishida earlier said in Washington that Japan needs to be able to rely on “allies and like-minded countries” on risks from China.
“China needs to make a strategic decision that it will abide by the established international rules and that it cannot and will not change the international order in ways that are contrary to these rules,” he said on Friday at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.
Kishida said that Japan still sees itself as a “peace-loving” nation and would use the G7 to push for the eventual abolition of nuclear weapons.
The leaders of the G7 — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US — are to hold a summit in May in Hiroshima, Japan, the site of the world’s first nuclear attack and Kishida’s parliamentary constituency.
WHEELING AND DEALING? Hou You-yi, Ko Wen-je, Eric Chu and Ma Ying-jeou are under investigation for allegedly offering bribes for the other side to drop out of the race Taipei prosecutors have started an investigation into allegations that four top politicians involved in attempts to form a “blue-white” presidential ticket have contravened election regulations. Listed as defendants are Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate and New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the KMT and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲). The case stemmed from judicial complaints filed last month with the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office alleging that the KMT (blue) and the TPP (white) had engaged in bribery by offering money or other enticements
EXPOSED: Some Taipei wardens reported joining the trips out of peer pressure, while others said they were relieved it was made public so they could refuse, a city councilor said Nearly 30 percent of Taipei borough wardens have joined group tours to China that were partially funded by the Chinese government, leading prosecutors probing potential Chinese interference in January’s elections to question local officials, an investigation showed. Democratic Progressive Party Taipei City councilors Chien Shu-pei (簡舒培) and Chen E-jun (陳怡君) have reported cases of Taipei borough wardens inviting residents to join inexpensive privately organized group tours to China that were partially funded by the Chinese government. The six-day trips reportedly cost NT$10,000 to NT$15,000, the councilors said. An investigation by the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) showed that nearly 30 percent
ELIGIBLE FOR JANUARY: All presidential candidates and their running mates meet the requirements to run for office, and none hold dual citizenship, the CEC said Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator and vice presidential candidate Cynthia Wu (吳欣盈) is working with the Central Election Commission (CEC) to resolve issues with her financial disclosure statement, a spokesman for the candidate said yesterday, after the commission published the statements of all three presidential candidates and their running mates, while confirming their eligibility to run in the Jan. 13 election. Wu’s office spokesman, Chen Yu-cheng (陳宥丞), said the candidate encountered unforeseen difficulties disclosing her husband’s finances due to being suddenly thrust into the campaign. She is also the first vice presidential nominee to have a foreign spouse, complicating the reporting of
GOOD NEWS: Although open civic spaces are shrinking in Asia-Pacific countries and territories, Taiwan’s openness is a positive sign, an expert said Taiwan remains the only country in Asia with an “open” civic space for the fifth consecutive year, the Civicus Monitor said in a report released yesterday. The People Power Under Attack 2023 report named Taiwan as one of only 37 open countries or territories out of 198 globally, and the only one in Asia. Compiled by Civicus — a global alliance of civil society organizations dedicated to bolstering civil action — the ranking compiled annually since 2017 measures the state of freedom of association, peaceful assembly and expression around the world. Researchers assign each country or territory one of five rankings describing the