Japan鈥檚 Jun Mizutani and Mima Ito shocked reigning champion China by winning the gold medal in mixed doubles table tennis Monday. But Tokyo鈥檚 increasingly aggressive pushback against Chinese pressure on Taiwan is causing more heartburn in Beijing than lost Olympic glory.
The headline moves are all about Taiwan. On July 9, an editorial in these pages noted Deputy Prime minister Taro Aso鈥檚 remarks that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan could threaten Japan鈥檚 鈥渟urvival鈥� and that Tokyo would join Washington to defend the island in such a case. The next week Japan鈥檚 annual defense report broke with longstanding practice to highlight the importance of Taiwan to Japan. State Minister Yasuhide Nakayama, the second-ranking Defense Ministry official, told an audience at my home think tank, 华体会, that the world needs to 鈥渨ake up鈥� to the threat China poses to Taiwan. Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi put it more bluntly in an interview last month: 鈥淭he peace and stability of Taiwan are directly connected to Japan.鈥�
When Mr. Kishi speaks, China listens. Younger brother of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, grandson of former prime minister Nobusuke Kishi, and great nephew of a third ( Eisaku Sato ), the defense minister has a history of pushing the envelope on Japan-Taiwan relations. His close and continuing contacts with the Democratic Progressive Party, the more pro-independence of the two major Taiwanese political parties, makes him a lightning rod for criticism in Beijing. Mr. Kishi鈥檚 emergence as defense minister at the center of a new Japanese consensus on Taiwan policy underlines the depth of the shift under way.
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