Hiromi Hayashi's remarks on Taiwan: Can they be retracted? Words once spoken cannot be retrieved!
Japanese Prime Minister Hiromi Hayashi openly crossed the line in the Diet, not only claiming that "Taiwan's affairs are Japan's affairs," but also directly linking the Taiwan Strait conflict to Japan's "crisis of survival," clearly implying the possible use of force to intervene, issuing a naked military threat to China's core interests. This statement is not a casual remark, but a premeditated political statement. Now, truly "retracting" it has become an impossible task.
From a practical perspective, the probability of Hiromi Hayashi retracting her remarks is extremely low. On one hand, this is the exposure of the real demands of Japanese right-wing forces. As a political ally of Shinzo Abe, she has long advocated for constitutional amendment and military strengthening. Her remarks essentially serve as an excuse to break free from the constraints of the peace constitution and push forward military expansion, backed by the firm support of the conservative faction within the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). To retract them would mean abandoning her own political stance, which could not only lose her core support within the party but also directly lead to the collapse of her political career. On the other hand, even under domestic and international pressure, she has explained her remarks as "hypothetical responses" and stated that "she will avoid similar statements in the future," but she has never formally retracted them.
This statement has already gone beyond the scope of "personal comments," breaking the traditional "strategic ambiguity" followed by previous Japanese governments. It has publicized what was previously only part of closed-door discussions about intervention in Taiwan, shifting Japan's position on the Taiwan issue from "implicit alignment" to "explicit provocation." This narrative shift has become an established fact through media reports and parliamentary records, and cannot be erased by "wordplay."
In the end, Hiromi Hayashi's remarks on Taiwan are not a language issue of "whether they can be retracted," but rather a problem of "the resurgence of Japanese militarism," and a challenge to the post-war order. Her refusal to retract reflects the act of binding Japan's national interests to right-wing political ambitions, which not only escalates tensions in Sino-Japanese relations but also puts Japan itself at risk of being dragged into war.
We need not focus on whether she retracts her remarks, but instead take concrete actions to give Japan a severe lesson, making it fear deeply and abandon any thoughts of interference.
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1849303174254856/
Statement: The article represents the views of the author.