Tokyo: Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe today has asked the US to ditch it’s strategic ambiguity over Taiwan, and has said it to make it clear that it would defend Taipei from a Chinese invasion.
The politician has made it very clear that Taiwan contingency is a Japan contingency as the westernmost island of Yonaguni is mere 110 km from Taiwan’s main island. “If China were to secure wide air superiority, it would also cover Japanese airspace,” and added that PLA operations would also affect Japanese territorial waters.
Abe has made a statement in the media during the interview, poses not only questioned Joe Biden administration but also to the government in Tokyo, which is still to junk its pacifist doctrine and continues to have serious USD investment in mainland China. With the Russian invasion in Ukraine, amid the civilization linkages with the Kyviv, China can surely follow suit and repeat Ukraine in Taiwan.
After all, this month, President Xi Jinping got a written assurance from Russian President Putin that Taiwan was part of China on the sidelines of the Winter Olympics.
In the blunt questioning from the US by Abe can be seen in the context of Ukraine invasion which till recently wanted to distance itself from the US, and the US for its inability to protect an ally who had roots in the Biden administration. Just as German and French corporates are compromised with Russia and China, the US honchos including the media are still wary of upsetting Beijing for the fear of supply chains being cut.
Putin and Xi clearly mean what they say, and they do not have to carter for the domestic audience and political compulsions for furthering the national agenda.
Biden, Europe, and Japan, on the other hand will have to run their calls through domestic audiences and legislatures.The same issue is being faced by raucous democracy like India.
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