The assassination of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe — in whom Taipei found a trusted ally — is undoubtedly a great loss for the nation.
Throughout his political career, Abe had done much to wake the international community to the threat of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, which he worked ceaselessly to prevent.
“A Taiwan emergency is a Japanese emergency, and therefore an emergency for the Japan-US alliance,” Abe told an online forum held by the Taipei-based Institute for National Policy Research in December last year.
Photo: Reuters
In an opinion piece published by Project Syndicate in April, Abe called on the US to end its long-standing policy of “strategic ambiguity” over Taiwan, saying it fosters “instability in the Indo-Pacific region, by encouraging China to underestimate US resolve, while making the government in Taipei unnecessarily anxious.”
Abe had long recognized that China’s hegemonic rise posed a threat to security in the Asia-Pacific region.
As early as 2007, while serving his first term as prime minister, Abe touted the idea that the Indian and Pacific oceans form a single geostrategic unit. This concept would give rise to the Free and Open Indo-Pacific strategy, which Abe unveiled as the guiding principle of his foreign policy in 2016.
Photo: Screen grab from Shinzo Abe’s Facebook page
That framework has since been adopted in various capacities by the governments of Australia, India, the US and others in the region.
Abe had also perceived weakness in Japan’s national defense. Japan’s constitution limits exercising the right of collective self-defense to a narrow set of circumstances that could impede the ability of the US-Japan alliance to respond to crises in the region.
Abe sought to authorize the use of the Japan Self-Defense Forces in foreign conflicts by launching initiatives to reinterpret Article 9 of the constitution and pass Japan’s Legislation for Peace and Security.
The efforts were met with a storm of criticism from pacifists in Japan, who accused Abe of seeking to revive militarism and military conscription. The controversy culminated in calls for his resignation and protesters reportedly placed figurines of the prime minister on roads to be crushed by vehicles.
Shifts in power in the region would prove him right. China’s constant parade of warships and military aircraft have stoked regional tensions and laid bare the depth of Beijing’s ambitions to Taiwan and Japan.
In retrospect, Abe’s persistence — which gave Japan the much-needed legal authority to respond to military conflict in the Taiwan Strait — showed audacity and vision rarely seen in Japanese politicians today.
Abe stepped down as prime minister in 2020, citing a recurrence of ulcerative colitis, a condition he had said contributed to him stepping down in 2007 after just one year in office during his first term.
Just one year after retirement, he continued his high-level political engagement, taking over the leadership of the Liberal Democratic Party’s biggest faction, Seiwa Seisaku Kenkyukai.
Abe also gave numerous speeches at public forums and campaign events that addressed Japan’s security environment, the need to bolster national defense and amending the constitution.
Abe’s remarks over the past two years — especially the widely reported Taiwan emergency speech — likely played a key role in reshaping public opinion in Japan. More than 90 percent of Japanese now believe their country should plan for a “Taiwan emergency,” a Nikkei poll released last month showed.
To Taiwan, Abe had been a tested friend, a powerful intercessor and perhaps most importantly, the statesman who all but brought the country into the fold of the US-Japan mutual cooperation and security framework.
Translated by Jonathan Chin
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by