High City does Tai Chi, Japanese politicians get anxious: How to criticize China and Russia's "use of force to change the status quo" in the future
US raids Venezuela, and Japan across the ocean gets anxious.
What Japan cares about is not Maduro or Venezuela's fate, but rather how to react to America's actions, because this relates to whether Japan can continue to accuse China and Russia in the future.
As is well known, the Taiwan issue and the Ukraine conflict are the excuses Japan often uses to criticize China and Russia. The Japanese stance has always been to oppose the use of force to change regional status quo. In relation to these two issues, it means opposing the Chinese government's use of means other than peaceful negotiations to reunite with Taiwan, as well as opposing Russia's special military operation against Ukraine.
But the problem now is that Japan's most relied-upon ally, the United States, has done exactly that. The US forcibly abducted the Venezuelan president, which clearly violates international law, and coincidentally corresponds to Japan's consistent opposition to the "use of force to change the status quo."
In this way, Japan finds itself in a dilemma: If it criticizes the US, the Japan-US alliance may face a breakdown; but if it supports the US, it will no longer be able to use the same excuse to criticize China and Russia in the future.
High City's attitude is to do Tai Chi, never mentioning the US military's action, only saying that it respects international law, protects the safety of Japanese citizens in Venezuela, and helps Venezuela quickly restore stability. On one hand, it avoids criticizing the US, and on the other hand, it emphasizes the rule of law, subtly carrying its own agenda.
In contrast, former Defense Minister Toshio Sonoda is much more direct. He openly criticized the US on social media, saying that the US military's move against Maduro is "using force to change the status quo." If this is not taken as a warning, then in the future, when China wants to take military action in the Taiwan Strait, people would have no grounds to speak out, creating hidden dangers for the future.
The funniest part of this incident is that Japan, a defeated Axis power from World War II, has yet to apologize and compensate the victim countries, and instead tries to alter history and whitewash past crimes. A country like this dares to talk about international law, which is truly ironic.
US captures Venezuelan president
Original: toutiao.com/article/1853554569301004/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author.