Former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe in an interview voiced concern that China’s quest to unify Taiwan is no longer a distant threat, considering the “new militarism” driven by Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) own ambition.
“Xi Jinping is consolidating his power base and he’s no longer hiding his ambitions toward Taiwan,” Abe told Hudson Institute Japan Chair deputy director Riley Walters and Georgetown University master’s candidate Eleanor Shiori Hughes in an interview conducted before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
As Xi gains more political power, Abe said he is afraid a move on Taiwan or disputed territories in the South China Sea might be mere years away, whether by force or otherwise.
Photo: Kyodo News via AP
This new militarism has been evident in China’s increased saber-rattling across Asia, Walters and Hughes wrote, citing border skirmishes with India, trade disputes with Australia and brazen flybys near Japan aiming to “alter the dimensions of the Indo-Pacific region to its favor across multiple frontiers.”
At the same time, Tokyo is undergoing a fundamental shift in its relations with Taiwan, they wrote, with Japanese officials beginning to “identify many of Taiwan’s problems as being Japan’s problems.”
As evidence, they pointed to a US-Japan joint leaders’ statement in April last year noting the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, as well as Abe’s focus on Taiwan in his vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific region.
“In strengthening our relationship with Taiwan, I have come to the view that having interest in the security of Taiwan, and making a commitment to the security of Taiwan, will contribute to the peace and stability throughout the region,” Abe said.
He also remarked on the strong Japan literacy among Taiwanese leadership he observed when he joined the Japanese National Diet in 1993.
“My view was that we need to be able to maintain this very pro-Japan atmosphere that’s prevailing in Taiwan,” he said.
Abe’s own Liberal Democratic Party has taken strides to bolster this relationship in the past few years, including through a task force review published last year of Japan’s Taiwan policy and a virtual dialogue with the Democratic Progressive Party in August last year.
Some in Japan are concerned that enhancing ties with Taiwan could compromise Japan-China relations, but Abe also cautioned against maintaining a “business-as-usual” attitude.
If China becomes too integral to Japan’s supply chain, “there is a possibility that China will take hold of [Japan’s] chokepoints” and cut off access to critical materials, he said.
Abe considers supply-chain resilience to be crucial, and views Taiwan as playing a key role.
This is why Abe and many other officials are behind Taiwan’s bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, and the reasoning behind Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s inroads into Japan, the authors said.
Abe was confident that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida would continue his efforts, albeit without rocking any boats in Taiwan or China.
“Taiwan is very important geopolitically,” he said, adding that Kishida would make the right decision when it comes to the future of Taiwan-Japan relations.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
IN FULL SWING: Recall drives against lawmakers in Hualien, Taoyuan and Hsinchu have reached the second-stage threshold, the campaigners said Campaigners in a recall petition against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) in Taichung yesterday said their signature target is within sight, and that they need a big push to collect about 500 more signatures from locals to reach the second-stage threshold. Recall campaigns against KMT lawmakers Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) and Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) are also close to the 10 percent threshold, and campaigners are mounting a final push this week. They need about 800 signatures against Chiang and about 2,000 against Yang. Campaigners seeking to recall Lo said they had reached the threshold figure over the
RSS