Fu Cong, China’s permanent representative to the United Nations, sent a second letter to the UN chief on Monday local time regarding Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s erroneous remarks about Taiwan.
It’s been almost a month since Takaichi made the provocative remarks at the Diet on November 7 that a “Taiwan contingency” could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan. So far, Takaichi has not retracted her words, and the international community is waiting for a clarification from Japan about this matter which concerns regional peace and stability.
Nonetheless, as if the situation is not tense enough, Japan made a step further. According to Japanese media reports, Takaichi on Monday held a telephone meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, in which Takaichi highlighted that the security of the Euro-Atlantic and the so-called Indo-Pacific is inseparable and cooperation between Japan-NATO and NATO-IP4 (Japan, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea) is crucial.
In recent years, Japan and NATO have had frequent high-level interactions, and their cooperation has become increasingly institutionalized. In January, the Mission of Japan to NATO was officially launched in Brussels. Japan has become the country outside Europe that has the closest ties and deepest cooperation with NATO. Obviously, Japan actively plays the role of a vanguard in promoting NATO-ization of the Asia-Pacific region, with the goal of externally enhancing its status and influence as a major power and internally pushing forward its military expansion.
Now the Japanese prime minister made the statement that “the security of the Euro-Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific is inseparable” at a time when her erroneous remarks about Taiwan have jeopardized the China-Japan relations and injected uncertainty to the region. Sun Jiashen, an assistant researcher at the Institute of Japanese Studies at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that the strategically anxious Japan is reaching out to partners to break the current impasse and, at the same time, consolidate camp confrontation.
“After Takaichi’s words and actions undermined Japan’s relations with China and after her phone call with US President Donald Trump, Japan is having strategic anxiety. Japan wants to enhance its ties with NATO and, at the same time create a circle of containment against China,” Sun told the Global Times on Tuesday.
Cai Liang, director of the Center for Northeast Asian Studies of Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, told the Global Times that Takaichi’s statement of linking the security of Europe to that of Asia is a continuation of the recent dangerous moves by Japan to break away from the restraints of its pacifist constitution and return to the path of militarism, with the consequences of bringing the camp confrontation in Euro-Atlantic to the Asia-Pacific.
The moves, Cai noted, range from the attempt to revise Japan’s long-standing Three Non-Nuclear Principles, which prohibit nuclear weapons from entering Japan’s territory, the reported Type 03 missile export plan to the Philippines, to the intention to intervene militarily on the Taiwan question.
Japan, a betrayer of history who brought enormous sufferings to Asia and the world, is now a troublemaker again. The international community, especially the Asia-Pacific region, wonders if Japan truly draws a clear line with militarism. Its provocative moves have already triggered concerns and oppositions from those inside Japan. The Japanese media reported on Tuesday that senior members of the cross-party Japan-China Friendship Parliamentarians’ Union conveyed to the Chinese side their request to send a delegation of lawmakers to China within the year in hopes to mend the deteriorating situation.
The security dilemma Europe faces now proves that NATO hasn’t adapted to modern times. Bringing NATO to the Asia-Pacific region will only increase anxiety of regional countries and create instability. If Japan really cares about the security in the so-called Indo-Pacific region, it should stop playing fire with the Taiwan question and stop stimulating security nerves of regional countries. GT
