Day: July 8, 2022

The G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Bali concluded Friday with several nations’ top diplomats condemning Moscow’s war in Ukraine in the presence of their Russian counterpart, who walked out at least once during what he called the “frenzied castigation.”

Retno Marsudi, the chief diplomat of host country Indonesia, did not say whether the meeting reached any consensus about food security, but mentioned that participants were deeply concerned about the conflict’s “global impact on food, energy and finance.”

Some of the Group of Twenty members “expressed condemnation” of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, she said, adding, “It is our responsibility to end the war as quickly as possible. And to build bridges and not walls.”

“Developing countries will be the most affected, particularly low-income countries and small, developing countries. There is an urgent need to address global food supply chain disruptions, integrating food and fertilizer from Ukraine and Russia into the global market,” Rento said in a statement after the meeting.

Since Russia invaded the neighboring country on Feb. 24, its military forces have blocked all of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports and cut off access to almost all of that country’s exports – especially of grain – sparking fears of a global food crisis. Ukraine is the world’s fourth-largest grain exporter.

Before the meeting started, Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, had to deal with tough questions from at least one reporter.

“When will you stop the war?” a German journalist asked as Moscow’s top diplomat shook hands with Retno.

Lavrov did not respond and walked away.

At the ministers’ meeting, Lavrov, sat between representatives from Saudi Arabia and Mexico. He later told reporters that during the meeting, he accused the West of preventing a peaceful solution to the conflict in Ukraine by refusing to talk to Russia.

“If the West doesn’t want talks to take place but wishes for Ukraine to defeat Russia on the battlefield – because both views have been expressed – then perhaps, there is nothing to talk about with the West,” TASS, the Russian state news agency, quoted him as saying.

Asked if there was any chance that he and Blinken could talk, he said: “It was not us that abandoned all contact. It was the United States.”

“If they don’t want to talk, it’s their choice,” Lavrov added.

Before the U.S. diplomat left for Bali, U.S. State Department officials said that he would not meet Lavrov formally until the Russians were “serious about diplomacy.”

But the Reuters news agency quoted Indonesia’s Retno as saying that Lavrov and Blinken were seen in a conversation in the meeting room.

Additionally, Blinken is said to have responded to Lavrov’s accusations against the West, Reuters said, citing an unnamed diplomat, who added, though, that Lavrov wasn’t in the room at that time.

“He addressed Russia directly, saying: To our Russian colleagues: Ukraine is not your country. Its grain is not your grain. Why are you blocking the ports? You should let the grain out,’” the official said, according to Reuters.

The meeting on Friday occurred under the shadow of the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during an election campaign speech in Nara, Japan. In a message of condolence to the Japanese people, Retno said Abe would “be remembered as the best role model for all.”

‘Everyone has to feel comfortable’

After the meeting, Lavrov and his German counterpart traded barbs.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock criticized Lavrov for being absent from the meeting room, according to German news agency DPA.

“The fact that the Russian foreign minister spent a large part of the negotiations here not in the room but outside the room underlines that there is not even a millimeter of willingness to talk on the part of the Russian government at the moment,” DPA quoted Baerbock as saying.

She noted that Lavrov was not present at discussions on how to improve global food supply and distribution problems.

For his part, Lavrov questioned Western manners when informing reporters that G7 diplomats had skipped a welcome dinner organized by Indonesia on Thursday, TASS reported.

“A welcome reception organized by Indonesia was held yesterday, a reception and a concert, and they [G7 countries] were absent from it,” Lavrov said.

“This is how they understand protocol, politeness and code of conduct,” he added.

Indonesia’s Retno spoke about the boycotted dinner.

“We are trying to create a comfortable situation for all. When the G7 countries said they could not attend the optional informal reception, they all talked and I said I could understand the situation because once again, everyone has to feel comfortable,” Retno said.

Indonesia has been trying to mediate between Russia and Ukraine, with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo visiting the two countries last month on a trip he described as a peace mission.

While his mission to persuade Moscow to declare a ceasefire did not immediately materialize, Jokowi said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had promised he would secure safe sea passage of grain and fertilizers from the world’s breadbaskets Russia and Ukraine, to avert a global food crisis.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news service.

Troops loyal to Myanmar’s junta have destroyed at least 132 religious buildings in arson and other attacks in wartorn Sagaing and Magway regions and Chin and Kayah states in the 17 months since the military seized power, RFA Burmese has learned.

A list compiled by RFA, based on information obtained from residents by rights groups, shows that the military destroyed a total of 33 religious buildings — 28 Buddhist monasteries, a Buddhist convent, two mosques, and two churches — in Sagaing between the Feb. 1, 2021, takeover and the end of June this year, as well as 11 Buddhist monasteries and a church in Magway.

Junta troops destroyed at least 66 churches in Chin state alone, and 20 churches and a mosque in Kayah state.

Data shows that, of the 28 Buddhist monasteries destroyed in Sagaing, most were located in Pale township, where the military has clashed with anti-junta People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitaries in some of the heaviest fighting since the coup.

A Buddhist abbot in Pale, who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity citing reasons of security, said that the clergy have been unable to peacefully carry out their religious duties and are “struggling to survive” under the military regime.

“Our monasteries have been burnt down. We are only able to live here because people in the area built a place for us,” he said.

“[The military] has set fire to the villages and monasteries, so it is no longer possible to practice religion or work for the ‘Sasana’ (the teaching of Buddhism). These days, we must always be ready to be on the run for our lives.”

The abbot said that soldiers had come to his monastery in Pale and stolen all of the cash donations and other items in the monastery, as well as his personal savings and money sent by the national Monastic School Association. They even made off with a 200-year-old golden Buddha statue embellished with a sizable ruby, he added.

Other reports from Sagaing said that, in addition to religious buildings destroyed by arson, pagodas in many of the region’s villages had been severely damaged by shrapnel and small arms fire resulting from military raids.

In Magway, a resident of Saw township, who also declined to be named, told RFA that the military’s destruction of religious buildings in the area had become “routine.”

“There is no religion for them. They kill civilians and destroy religious structures without feeling any remorse,” he said.

“In addition to arresting and killing civilians, they [take] away all the valuables and things they [find] in the monastery. These acts have become routine for them. They are doing all this because they have no supplies coming from behind the frontlines.”

RFA has received frequent reports of arrests, looting, rape, torture, arson and murder amid scorched earth offensives by the military against the PDF and other anti-junta in Myanmar’s remote border regions. Junta forces have killed at least 2,069 civilians and arrested more than 14,500 since the coup, mostly during peaceful anti-coup protests, according to Thailand’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

Chin and Kayah states

According to information compiled by RFA, the most churches destroyed by the military since the coup were located in Chin state, with 66 buildings targeted in the townships of Thantlang, Hakha, Tedim, Falam, Mindat, Kanpetlet and Matupi.

Dennis Ngun Thang Mang, the chairman of the Chin Baptist Association, told RFA that the military is “deliberately targeting” religious buildings in Chin state.

“We feel very sad that our religious buildings, the most sacred places for us, were destroyed,” he said.

“We condemn these acts. Targeting these buildings is unforgivable and should not have happened. Maybe 5% of the incidents were accidental. But I think their actions were nearly all deliberate.”

A statement from the Chin Affairs Federation in March noted that not only were churches being targeted in Chin state, but at least 20 pastors had also been arrested in the region, four of whom were killed. The group said that while 12 were eventually released, the other four remain in detention.

A spokesman for the ethnic Progressive Karenni People’s Movement told RFA that 21 religious buildings were damaged in the Kayah state townships of Loikaw, Demoso and Hpruso since February 2021.

A member of the clergy in Loikaw slammed what he called the “intentional destruction” of Christian buildings in the state.

“No matter how intense the war, they cannot attack temples and schools,” he said. “We can understand accidental destruction, but intentional attacks and arson should not have happened at all.”

Documenting evidence for prosecution

Repeated attempts by RFA to contact Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, the junta’s deputy minister of information, for comment on the destruction went unanswered. However, the junta spokesman has previously denied that the military intentionally targets religious buildings.

Aung Myo Min, minister for human rights for the shadow National Unity Government, called on residents to document such acts by junta troops for future prosecution.

“If cases aren’t properly documented now, the evidence cannot be substantiated when it is needed to establish the truth later on,” he said.

“Therefore, please gather information on all violations and atrocities and crimes — even if it is painful to do so. It’s necessary to record exactly what happens and systematically document who the perpetrators are, including from which battalion. I want to urge the victims to become witnesses in the future.”

Aung Myo Min said that although international laws based on the so-called Geneva Conventions prohibit attacks on religious buildings, the military has deliberately destroyed them as part of its crackdown on the armed opposition.

While most of the 132 religious buildings were reported as having been destroyed by arson, several were damaged by heavy weapons. Residents and religious leaders told RFA that they regularly saw soldiers storm the buildings before deliberately destroying them.

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Burmese citizens with national registration cards indicating they reside in northwestern Myanmar’s Sagaing region face travel restrictions and other forms of discrimination under Myanmar’s ruling military regime because they hail from the part of the country with the greatest armed resistance to the junta, locals said Friday.

The junta which seized power from the elected government in February 2021 has faced the fiercest armed resistance in Sagaing region. Most of the region’s 34 townships and more than 5,900 villages have been affected by fighting between military forces and members of the anti-junta People’s Defense Forces (PDF). The hostilities and the burnings of villages have displaced thousands of residents in the region.

The junta announced in late March that authorities could check the national registration cards, also known as citizenship verification cards, of people in the region anywhere on demand.

Residents of the region told RFA that people holding national registration cards that identify them as being from the area are limited in where they can travel and cut off from employment opportunities.

A Myaung township resident, who requested anonymity for safety reasons, said registration card holders have been subjected to stricter checks than are those registered in other regions and states since the junta made its announcement.

“There’s nothing we can do about transportation or communications or getting jobs,” he said. “You cannot lie to them as every detail is on the registration card.”

Though no one wants to accept people who have cards beginning with the numerical prefix that identifies them as Sagaing residents, locals are proud that they hold such ID documents, he said.

“But we face a lot of difficulties in travelling and finding jobs,” he said, adding that he was dismayed that employers in other areas of Myanmar discriminated against migrant workers from Sagaing.

A company worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity for the same reason, said authorities question him now when he travels more than they do others.

“It’s just a normal trip, [and] there are many checkpoints along the way,” he said. “There’s a lot of questioning at some checkpoints. They gave you suspicious looks. You will be asked many questions even though it’s a normal business trip, just because you are holding a card with the prefix 5/ and you live in a township where there are concerning situations.’

“I’m always worried they might not accept my answers and turn me back,” the worker added.

‘Public security’ work

A hotel owner in central Myanmar’s Mandalay region, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said regime authorities had not instructed hotels to conduct strict checks of Sagaing region citizens, though they had been told to maintain a list of guests and their phone numbers.

“There are no specific orders to strictly check guests from what township or region they come from,” he said, adding that he did not record the townships from which his guests came.

“But we have been told to keep records of names and phone numbers of guests who stay here because of the current situation in the country and we have to send guest lists to [authorities] regularly,” he said. “They will take action against us if we don’t follow the orders.”

In the past, guests were allowed to stay at guesthouses without presenting their national registration cards if they could produce other identification documents.

Sagaing residents also told RFA that people from the region who want to go abroad for work have been subjected to strict censorship, and some have been refused passports.

Military spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun said there were no special restrictions as such, however.

“Even in places like [the capital] Naypyidaw, you can find people fleeing from the people’s Defense Forces violence in Sagaing region,” he said.

“Of course, there may be security checks in some places,” he said. “This is not done for these registration card owners. They’re just doing their work for public security.”

Nazin Latt, a National League for Democracy lawmaker for Sagaing’s Kanbalu township, described the discrimination as “psychological warfare.”

“It’s a violation of human rights to oppress people in areas with strong opposition, for jobs or travel whether it be for security reasons or not,” he told RFA. “On the one hand, it is seen as a systematic psychological warfare — being refused jobs or being refused to put up at guest houses, finding it difficult to get jobs in Yangon and Mandalay, all these issues. It also depends a lot on the employers.”

A recent job announcement in Mandalay’s Pyin Oo Lwin township, said that people holding cards with the Sagaing numerical prefix on their ID cards could not apply.

RFA could not reach the recruiter by phone for comment.

In the past, during the height of armed conflict between national forces and the ethnic rebel Arakan Army (AA) in Rakhine state, the military and military-controlled local administrative authorities imposed similar restrictions on citizens with the numerical code for the western state on their national registration cards.

The residents were prevented from traveling in other areas of the country, especially in northern Shan state, on suspicion that they might be heading there to participate in military training offered by AA near the border with China.

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane for RFA Burmese. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

Myanmar’s military is guilty of war crimes for its alleged practice of laying landmines in populated areas where they have killed civilians, including children, two ethnic rights organizations told RFA.

Landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) in Myanmar have maimed or killed at least 115 children since the military junta seized power last year, UNICEF Myanmar reported on June 24. The report said that one-third of all landmine and UXO casualties it tracked from the February 2021 coup to April 2022 were children.

“In times of conflict, children are the most vulnerable, including from landmines and UXO. Since children are smaller than adults, they are more likely to take the full impact of the blast and are therefore more likely to suffer death or serious injury,” the report said.

On June 19, two seven-year-old boys were killed when they played with an unexploded artillery shell near Kan Ywar village in Gangaw township in central Myanmar’s Magway region.

Pyae Sone Aung and Min Htut Zaw found a 40mm shell and began throwing it to each other, Yu Ko, a resident of the village, told RFA.

“Afterwards, as they were hitting it with a rock, the shell exploded and the blast killed both of them,” said Yu Ko. “I heard there were three or four similar incidents elsewhere of unexploded ordnance going off once it got into children’s hands.” 

Chin state, in the country’s west, was one of the first regions in Myanmar to form militias to fight the military following the coup. 

The military has shelled populated villages in response. It has also laid landmines that appear to target civilians, Hre Lian, a spokesperson for the Chin Human Rights Group, told RFA.

“The soldiers plant landmines, and people step on them and get killed and injured,” he said. 

“They are planted purposely. The death toll from civilian casualties has risen sharply. Additionally, children are killed while playing with unexploded ordnance. Tragedies like these occurred last August when four children were killed and three were injured in Thantlang township.”

He said Thantlang, Matupi and Mindat townships were the most affected by landmines and unexploded ordnance in the state.

The junta forces are guilty of war crimes for planting landmines in villages and settlements in Kayah state, Ko Banya, spokesperson for Karenni Human Rights Watch, told RFA.

“We need to put pressure on the junta. They planted mines in areas where they cannot move as freely as in the past. They often planted landmines not only in villages but also inside buildings,” he said.

“We can say that it is a war crime because they planted these mines intentionally to kill or injure civilians. War crimes are committed with an intent to kill. We hope the perpetrators of these actions will be punished at some point.”

Around 20 civilians stepped on mines in Demoso and Hpruso townships and in the state capital Loikaw this year, two of whom have died, Ko Banya said.

RFA repeatedly attempted to contact Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, a junta spokesman, for comment, without success.

He previously told RFA that the military uses landmines only for security purposes and around military camps.

A lack of mine awareness, as a result of the breakdown of government since the coup, is also to blame for civilian deaths, Aung Thu Nyein, executive director of the Myanmar Strategic and Policy Study Group, told RFA.

“I think landmine awareness programs almost stopped soon after the coup. And then, there were fewer civil society organizations and mediating groups in the peace process,” he said. 

“On the other hand, conflicts are escalating day by day. When educational talks and demining programs are lacking, the number of mine accidents naturally rises. So I think the number of victims will keep on increasing,” Aung Thu Nyein said.

In its report, UNICEF Myanmar said that the agency and its partners provided Explosive Ordnance Risk Education to 20,000 children across the country in the first five months of 2022. 

“UNICEF calls on all parties to facilitate access for assistance to victims; to stop laying mines and to clear existing mines and UXO,” the report said.

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

North Korea is forcing smartphone users to install an app to use the isolated country’s closed intranet that also allows the government to remotely track their locations and monitor their devices in real time, sources there told RFA.

The Kwangmyong app connects users to a corner of the intranet where they can access their subscription to the state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper and other educational and informational services. 

But some North Koreans say that the app is a massive invasion of privacy, as it enables the Ministry of State Security and other law enforcement agencies to see exactly where they are or if they are using their phones to access forbidden content like movies from South Korea or foreign news.

“At the post office these days, residents are lining up to pay the fee to get their quarterly [license] card,” a resident of Pukchang county, South Pyongan province, north of the capital Pyongyang, told RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

“Starting this month, cellphone users are forced to install an intranet app called Kwangmyong to get their quarterly cards,” he said.

Citizens are not happy that they must agree to increased surveillance just to use their mobile phones.

“They are reluctant to set it up because they know that they can be watched by the State Security Department at any time through the intranet. But the postal authorities stress that the Central Committee has ordered that they install Kwangmyong on all personal mobile phones. The cards cannot be issued unless Kwangmyong has been installed,” said the source.

“Many of the residents reluctantly installed Kwangmyong on their phones … but some have refused to install the app and have been able to buy the quarterly card on the black market,” he said.

The black-market version of the quarterly communications license is U.S. $12, much more expensive than at the post office, where it costs just 2,840 won ($0.40).

Authorities have been touting the usefulness of the Kwangmyong app, a resident of Ryongchon county, in the northeastern province of North Pyongan, told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely.  

“They say that installation of Kwangmyong can provide mobile phone users with information about the Rodong Sinmun [newspaper], foreign language education, and cooking techniques,” the source said.

“The real intent is to monitor the residents through the Kwangmyong network installed on people’s mobile phones,” he said.

Kwangmyong even tracks how devices are used as media players, according to the source.

“When Kwangmyong … is installed on a personal mobile phone, the Ministry of State Security can monitor the users from that moment on. It can check when the users watched South Korean movies and how many times they read or downloaded illegal materials from abroad. It provides real-time monitoring,” he said.

Because the North Korean intranet is not connected to the global internet, the illegal materials must be passed around from person to person on physical media like USB flash drives and easily concealable SD cards. With Kwangmyong installed, the authorities could easily learn that users viewed illicit material.

“For this reason, many residents had been using their mobile phones without installing access to the intranet. But now, the post offices sell the quarterly cards only after they have installed it,” he said. 

“They are accusing the authorities of using the intranet network as a surveillance tool,” he said.

Another way that mobile phone users can avoid surveillance is to use a mobile phone smuggled from China, the second source said.

These phones are illegal, but can access the Chinese network in areas close to the border. They are also not registered with North Korean authorities, so it is not necessary to purchase quarterly communications licenses.

A 2019 report by the Washington-based Committee for Human Rights in North Korea described in detail how the government was able at that time to monitor cellphone activity and file sharing.

The report said that all North Korean smartphones were required to have an application called “Red Flag” that kept a log of webpages visited by users and randomly took screenshots of their phones. Those could be viewed but not deleted with another app called “Trace Viewer.”

“The system is sinister in its simplicity. It reminds users that everything they do on the device can be recorded and later viewed by officials, even if it does not take place online. As such, it insidiously forces North Koreans to self-censor in fear of a device check that might never happen,” the report said.

Kwangmyong appears to have eliminated the need for a device check, as it allows remote monitoring through the intranet.

Translated by Claire Shinyoung O. Lee. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated on Friday, once remarked: “If Taiwan has a problem, then so do Japan and the United States.”

On a democratic island facing the threat of invasion by neighboring China, that warning is quite a legacy.

In a post to her Facebook page on Friday, President Tsai Ing-wen eulogized Abe as “Taiwan’s most steadfast friend,” as well as a friend she had known for more than 10 years.

“Taiwan and Japan have worked together to overcome many challenges and build deep friendships, and I am grateful for Abe’s support,” Tsai wrote.

When Taiwan was still reeling from the 2019 Hualien earthquake, Abe had sent a personal message saying “Go Taiwan!”, Tsai said.

He had also played a part in promoting the island’s pineapple exports in the face of an import ban from China, she revealed.

The Japanese government had also made a point of shipping COVID-19 vaccines to Taiwan in 2021, at a time when supplies were tight.

She said Abe had once more repeated his warning about the interconnectedness of Taiwan’s national interests with those of Japan and the U.S. when they spoke via video call in March 2022.

“Taiwan and Japan will continue to support each other and prove to the international community that the axis of good will continue to stand in the face of violence,” Tsai wrote.

Tenure as PM

Abe was born into a political family in Yamaguchi Prefecture in 1954, becoming prime minister for the first time in 2006, one of the youngest to hold the office, and the first prime minister born after World War II.

In 2012, he served again as prime minister again for eight years, resigning due to illness. By then, he was the longest-serving prime minister in Japan and had been in Japanese politics for nearly 30 years.

One grandfather was Hiro Abe, a former member of the House of Representatives, while another was prime minister Nobusuke Kishi. His great-uncle was also a prime minister — Eisaku Sato.

Japan is no stranger to the assassination of former prime ministers: Inuyo Hamaguchi, Ito Hirobumi, Takahashi Nissin, and others have met with the same fate as Abe.

Three days after Abe stepped down as prime minister, he visited the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, where the Class-A war criminals of World War II are enshrined, triggering a backlash from China and South Korea.

Abe also urged the revision of the constitution, hoping to revise constitutional limits on Japan’s military.

Both Abe and his grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, successfully bid for the Olympics during their tenure, but neither of them actually presided over the opening of the Olympics their country hosted.

After taking office in 2006, Abe chose China instead of the United States for his first foreign trip, which was seen as an “ice-breaker.”

Both sides were looking to end the diplomatic deadlock caused by former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s visit to the Yasukuni Shrine.

But Abe stepped down for health reasons after only one year in office.

Elected to the House of Representatives in 2009, he led a number of congressmen to visit Taiwan the following year and met with former President Lee Teng-hui, then-President Ma Ying-jeou and then-DPP Chairman Tsai Ing-wen.

In 2012, Abe led the Liberal Democratic Party to victory again, but Sino-Japanese relations deteriorated over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands and over Abe’s visit to the Yasukuni Shrine.

When he eventually visited China in 2018, it was the first time in eight years that a Japanese leader had met with a Chinese leader — in this case, Xi Jinping.

Abe invited Xi Jinping to Japan in return, but the pandemic and further deterioration in Sino-Japanese ties meant that trip never happened. Abe also presided over the end of 40 years of Japanese economic aid to China.

Pro-Taiwanese leader

In Taiwan, Abe is seen as the most pro-Taiwanese prime minister Japan has ever had.

Five hours after he was fatally shot, many politicians and members of the public were offering prayers for him via social media.

When the news of Abe’s death came, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, the Kuomintang, the Times Power Party, the People’s Party, and the Fundamental Progress Party all issued statements of condolence.

When Abe was at a low ebb, politically, he was encouraged by former Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui, who gave him some tips to aid his comeback.

Lee told Abe that nobody else could be trusted to do the job, and suggested Abe try to revise Japan’s constitution.

The two former leaders were like father and son, according to some account.

Abe once said: “There is no politician in the world who thinks about Japan like Lee Teng-hui.”

Chen Tang-shan, chairman of Taiwan’s Friends of Abe Association, said there had been plans for Abe to visit Taiwan on the second anniversary of Lee’s death at the end of July, but the schedule had yet to be finalized at the time of Abe’s death.

“At a time when the international situation is at its most dangerous for Taiwan, we had a good friend who supported Taiwan very strongly,” Chen said. “He sadly lost his life in the shooting. As a political figure in Taiwan, I am very grateful for his support.”

“He saw Japan and Taiwan as bound together in the same community,” he said. “We are very sad that someone who saw politics so clearly, and who had the courage to speak out publicly is no longer with us.”

Chen Yongfeng, director of the Center for Japanese Regional Studies at Tokai University, said Abe’s stance on Taiwan had become hugely influential in Japanese political circles.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.