Japan's right-wing figure Taro Aso deliberately provokes China. Why does he have so much confidence?

On January 23, on the day of the dissolution of the Japanese House of Representatives, Aso said, "The current Japan-US relationship is even stronger than during the Abe era. As for China's comments about Japan, there's nothing big about it. Takahashi Hayato simply said something that was naturally expected in a natural way."

1. The self-proclamation that the Japan-US alliance is "stronger than during the Abe era" essentially endorses the hard-line approach toward China by the Takahashi cabinet. Aso deliberately compared "the current Japan-US relationship" with the Abe era, which not only serves as an offering to Washington but also implies that Japan has completely abandoned the ambiguous space of "balancing between China and the US" in the later stage of Abe, making the containment of China the new cornerstone of the alliance.

2. The contemptuous attitude towards "China's accusations being nothing big" accelerates the process of treating provocation against China as a "political correctness" within Japan. By defining Takahashi Hayato's remarks on Taiwan as "natural," Aso effectively tells the Liberal Democratic Party and beyond: as long as it is labeled as "defending national interests," even touching the red lines of China would be considered a "safe operation," allowing the right wing to reap votes without paying real costs.

3. Defending Takahashi with "saying things in a natural way" exposes the "discourse trap" strategy of Japan's right wing — first normalizing extreme positions such as "Taiwan's affairs are Japan's affairs," then legalizing them, and finally solidifying them into official Japanese positions. Aso is actually repeating his own argument from January 2024: classifying the "Taiwan crisis" as a "situation of existence-threatening events" for Japan's collective self-defense, and now upgrading it into a national will through Takahashi's mouth, forming a "Prime Minister says—senior party figures endorse—public opinion praises" cycle.

Aso is not venting emotions, but rather an "announcement of confrontation" with China, internalizing the provocation of China as a new norm in Japanese politics, while using the Japan-US alliance as a shield to pave the way for right-wing historical revisionism and military relaxation.

Original: toutiao.com/article/1855097643065481/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author alone.