Former Japan leader Abe remembered as a friend to Taiwan after death
ROC Central News Agency
07/09/2022 12:19 AM
Taipei, June 8 (CNA) The death of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, extolled by many in Taiwan for his consistent support in the face of Chinese aggression, has been met with grief and mourning from those across the country's political spectrum.
Japan's longest-serving prime minister died Friday after being shot twice during a campaign event in the Japanese city of Nara.
In op-eds and interviews, Abe repeatedly called on Japan and the United States to abandon a policy of "strategic ambiguity" in favor of unequivocally committing to a military defense of Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion.
"The policy of ambiguity worked extremely well as long as the U.S. was strong enough to maintain it, and as long as China was far inferior to the U.S. in military power," Abe said in an article published by the Los Angeles Times in April.
"But those days are over. The American policy of ambiguity toward Taiwan is now fostering instability in the Indo-Pacific region, by encouraging China to underestimate American resolve, while making the government in Taipei unnecessarily anxious."
Tokyo and Washington's ability to intervene is currently restrained by the 1997 Guidelines for Japan-U.S. Defense Cooperation, and while the bilateral alliance has expanded its focus from the defense of Japan to "situations in areas surrounding Japan," Tokyo has remained evasive when asked if this includes Taiwan.
Abe, however, harbored no such ambiguity. In December, he was quoted by Kyodo News as the first Japanese leader to say "a Taiwan contingency is a contingency for Japan."
"In other words, it is also a contingency for the Japan-U.S. alliance. People in Beijing, particularly President Xi Jinping (習近平), should not misjudge that."
During his time in office from 2006 to 2007 and from 2012 to 2020, Abe repeatedly highlighted the importance of maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, calling Taiwan an "important partner and friend" of Japan.
His stance saw him forge firm bonds with leaders on both sides of Taiwan's political divide, with Abe counting former Presidents Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), and Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), as well as Taiwan's incumbent leader Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) among his friends.
Abe first visited Taiwan in 2010, flying with members of Japan's All-party parliamentary group on the inaugural flight between Tokyo's Haneda Airport and Taipei's Songshan Airport, a route whose opening he had facilitated while in office.
During his visit, Abe told then Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) of the Kuomintang (KMT) that there was no issue between Japan and Taiwan that could not be resolved because of the profound friendship between the two countries.
He was responding to the long-term dispute between Taiwan and Japan over the fishing grounds in the waters near the Diaoyutai Islands, which Japan has administrative control over and refers to them as Senkaku Islands.
A ground-breaking fisheries agreement aiming to end the controversy was signed in 2013 between the Ma administration and Abe administration, concluding 17 rounds of negotiations over the issue that had started in 1996.
Ma's office said via a news release Friday that the opening of Songshan-Haneda route and the signing of the fisheries agreement were both major milestones in the bilateral relationships and testimonies to Abe's friendship to Taiwan.
He visited Taiwan the next year and had expressed a desire to visit Taiwan specifically to pay tribute to Lee after he died on July 30, 2020.
In an interview with Japan's Sankei Shimbun in July 2021 ahead of the one-year anniversary of Lee's passing, Abe said the late president had made tremendous contributions to the amicable relationship between Taiwan and Japan.
Lee's daughter Annie Lee (李安妮) told local media Friday that the Lee Teng-hui Foundation had planned to invite Abe to visit Taiwan at the end of this month to give a keynote speech at a forum on Taiwan-Japan relations.
Abe "deserved all the credit" for the rock-solid relationships between Taiwan and Japan, and had maintained a very cordial friendship with her father, Lee said of Abe's passing.
Mark Chen (陳唐山), who served as foreign minister under Chen Shui-bian, said many of his friends learned with "profound sadness" of Abe's death, adding that they had been preparing to launch a "Friends of Shinzo Abe Association in Taiwan" in July.
Chen said they had been arranging for Abe to eulogize Lee on the second anniversary of his death and to deliver a speech at the Legislative Yuan, according to local media.
In a press release issued late Friday, the ruling Democratic Progress Party lauded Abe for the support he had given to Taiwan, ranging from his advocating for Taiwan's international participation, facilitating the donations of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine by Japan to Taiwan, and even promoting Taiwanese pineapples on social media after China blocked imports of the fruit in August last year.
Expressing their deepest condolences to Abe's family, the DPP said they hoped to deepen the Taiwan-Japan relationships on the foundations built by the man known to many as "Japan's most Taiwan-friendly prime minister."
(By Wen Kuei-hsiang and Shih Hsiu-chuan)
Enditem/ASG
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