The Fire of Dragon by Ian Williams

Author:Ian Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Birlinn

CHAPTER 12

Japan: Asia’s Quiet Achiever Steps Out of the Shadows

‘If a major problem occurred in Taiwan, it would not be going too far to say that it could be an existential threat [for Japan] . . . In such a case, Japan and the United States will have to work together to defend Taiwan.’

Taro Aso, Japan’s deputy prime minister, July 2021

The debate in the National Diet, Japan’s parliament, in June 2021 would not usually have attracted much international attention. It was about the country’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, and Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga listed Taiwan alongside Australia and New Zealand as ‘countries’ that had taken strict measures to combat the virus. When opposition leader Yukio Edano joined the debate, he also used the word ‘country’ when referring to Taiwan. Cue Chinese outrage at such ‘erroneous’ remarks. Beijing immediately lodged a diplomatic protest. ‘China demands that Japan make an immediate clarification to undo the harm already caused, and guarantee a similar incident will never happen again,’ fumed Wang Wenbin, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman.1 No such guarantee came, and Japan’s Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi committed the same offence when discussing his government’s donation of Covid-19 vaccine doses to Taiwan, which followed Beijing’s attempts to block the island from gaining access to shots from elsewhere. Japanese leaders are usually extremely cautious in their diplomacy and careful with their choice of words, especially as regards China. So when officials began to describe Taiwan as a country, this was no mere slip of the tongue – Tokyo was sending a message.

Over the following weeks, the message became more explicit. ‘We have to wake up’ in the face of an ‘aggressive’ China, said Deputy Defence Minister Yasuhide Nakayama. ‘We have to protect Taiwan as a democratic country.’2 Beijing reacted with outrage, describing his remarks as ‘highly sinister, dangerous and irresponsible’.3 Soon after, Taro Aso, Japan’s finance minister and deputy prime minister, explicitly linked the security of Taiwan to the security of Japan. ‘If a major problem occurred in Taiwan, it would not be going too far to say that it could be an existential threat [for Japan],’ he told a fundraising event. ‘In such a case, Japan and the United States will have to work together to defend Taiwan.’4

Japan’s annual defence review is usually quite an anodyne document. However, in 2021, the ‘Defense of Japan’ review also directly linked Japan’s security to that of Taiwan. ‘Stabilizing the situation surrounding Taiwan is important for Japan’s security and the stability of the international community. Therefore, it is necessary that we pay close attention to the situation with a sense of crisis more than ever before,’ the report states.5 The front cover of the review carried a drawing of a fully armed samurai warrior on charging steed, as opposed to the previous year’s pink cover and illustration of Mount Fuji and white cherry blossoms.6 ‘International society needs to pay greater attention to the survival of Taiwan,’ said Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi, when the report was published.7

For the

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.