Observer | Why is Taro Aso eager to visit Taiwan? Visiting Taiwan | Taro Aso
During his tenure as Foreign Minister in the Koizumi government, he was the first politician to propose the "China threat theory".After being overthrown by the Democratic Party during his Prime Minister's term in 2009, he visited Taiwan consecutively in 2010 and 2011 to prevent and restrain the then Ma Ying jeou regime from going too far in improving cross-strait relations. Afterwards, Shinzo Abe, who returned to power at the end of 2012, was fully responsible for enhancing Japan Taiwan relations. But after Abe's assassination in July last year, the Abe faction of the Liberal Democratic Party was in a state of "no leader among the dragons". More than a year later, they had not yet launched a popular faction leader, so they could only implement a collective leadership system of "five dragons governing the water", and the Abe faction naturally showed signs of decline. This is still just an internal issue within the largest faction of the Liberal Democratic Party. The key is whether Shinzo Abe is still the general representative of Japan's pro Taiwan political forces. Will there be a vacuum of "pro Taiwan politics" if he falls?
Push the time forward slightly. In March 2021, Davidson, the then commander of the US Indo Pacific Command, said in the US Congress that Chinese Mainland would use force against Taiwan in "six years", although he did not put forward a convincing argument. But Japanese media is hyping up this extensively. A few days later, after meeting with Aso, Abe talked about this matter and the two reached a consensus: the matter is of great importance, and we must seize the opportunity to write a full article.Perhaps its status is not high enough, so the response is relatively limited. So a month later, Aso himself further elaborated on this: if the Chinese Mainland uses force against Taiwan, it will involve "Japan's life and death, so Japan must unite with the United States to provide assistance to Taiwan." These fallacies were strongly refuted by China.
Later, Abe also wrote to the Los Angeles Times of the United States, asking the United States to change its decades old "fuzzy policy" on Taiwan, and made it clear that it would intervene when Chinese Mainland used force against Taiwan. But unexpected circumstances arose, and Abe unexpectedly fell at the gunpoint of an extremely unprofessional assassin in July last year. Abe had originally planned his visit to Taiwan in August last year, but a fatal bullet ended everything. After losing the general representative of this right-wing force, there was a great momentum of political collapse and disintegration in Japan, and the same situation occurred in Japan's pro Taiwan politics.
At this moment, Aso is about to step forward. Although he is more than ten years older than Abe, after Abe falls, he must continue to shoulder Abe's banner and reorganize Japan's pro Taiwan political forces, which is an important reason for his visit to Taiwan.Previously, during his visit to Japan in June this year, KMT candidate Ko Wen je and KMT candidate Hou You yi also met with Aso, who took over from Abe as the new representative of Japan's pro Taiwan forces.
How rampant Japan's pro Taiwan forces are, just a few data points show it at a glance: as of March this year, among Japan's 47 prefectures and prefectures.In December 2021, the Japan Taiwan Co Prosperity Leaders Alliance was formed by the heads of local governments in Japan, and currently has 136 members.Kishida's response to this is that he will seriously consider this demand and promote it with the Liberal Democratic Party as the main force.
As early as 2003, Japan dispatched retired Self Defense Force officers to the Taipei office of the association. In 2021, the Taipei and Kaohsiung offices of the association raised Japanese flags, clearly indicating that this so-called "office" was a "diplomatic agency.". In June 2022, an active civilian official from the Ministry of Defense was also sent to the Taipei office, but the right-wing forces in Japan are still dissatisfied. In their view, at least one person from each of the land, sea, and air Self Defense Forces needs to be sent to the office to adapt to the development of the situation. Since 2021, two members of the Liberal Democratic Party and two members of the Taiwan Democratic Progressive Party have held so-called "2+2" talks online and offline multiple times to strengthen communication and exchange between the two sides.
In this context, Aso's visit to Taiwan at this time is undoubtedly an important move to enhance the relationship between the two sides, and is bound to be strongly criticized by the Chinese side.
