Don't talk about human rights in other countries, the Kishida regime should first reflect on itself

Li Ruoyu is a teacher at the School of History and Culture of Sichuan University, and a special researcher of the Center for Japanese Studies, a key research base for regional and country studies in Sichuan Province

Since Kishida became Japan's 100th prime minister on October 4, 2021, his China policy has been the focus of attention. Since Kishida was born in the "Hongchikai", a faction within the Liberal Democratic Party that has a tradition of friendship with China, and has also served as Japan's foreign minister for a long time, the outside world generally expects Kishida to get rid of the shackles of ideological confrontation and adopt a more pragmatic attitude toward Sino-Japanese relations.

Unfortunately, on February 1, the House of Representatives of the Japanese Diet passed a resolution expressing concern about "so-called human rights issues in Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia, and Hong Kong." To a certain extent, this can be regarded as the Japanese Government's latest "answer" to Sino-Japanese relations. In fact, on January 28, Kishida just released a Chinese New Year message through the website of the Prime Minister's Official Residence: "Greetings to overseas Chinese living and working in Japan, and all friends around the world who welcome the Spring Festival." However, the little "positive energy" brought by the Chinese New Year greetings is obviously not enough to offset the bad influence of this speculative China-related human rights resolution. On the issue of Sino-Japanese relations, the Japanese government has finally failed to break out of the vicious circle of "two steps forward and three steps back" that has been staged since the Japanese government's "island purchase farce" in 2012.

The reason why the Japanese government is always in and out of the way is mostly due to a mentality of "eating in the east and staying in the west". Even Shinzo Abe, who prides himself on being a hardcore ally of Trump, has never intended to abandon the economic benefits brought to Japan by Sino-Japanese economic and trade exchanges. Therefore, even after Japan synchronizes with the United States on China-related issues, it is not uncommon for it to turn one hundred and eighty degrees to show favor to China. "Playing ambiguity" between China and the United States has become a fixed routine of Japanese diplomacy.

Japan's China-related human rights resolution is also not original, and its blueprint is obviously the "Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act" passed by the US Congress. Even japan's domestic media have exaggerated and praised the interpretation: the Japanese version of the resolution neither explicitly appears the word "China" nor uses harsh words such as "condemnation", which can be regarded as a goodwill release to the Chinese side. Thus japan was found to have maintained a perfect balance between China and the United States.

The reason why Japan has this illusion is largely due to its increasing oblivion of the traditions of Oriental culture under the trend of "Westernization". Originally, many of Japan's older generation of politicians had good sinology literacy. For them, Confucius's truth that "a gentleman is righteous, and a villain is profitable" is not difficult to understand, and naturally they will not expect to play some trick of "slapping a sweet date" and relying on the small profit in front of them to fellowship with the gentleman. But for today's politicians, Western political discourse such as "interest exchange" and "two-sided betting" is undoubtedly more familiar. In the eyes of Japanese conservatives, taking a Western view of China without discrimination has even become a manifestation of political correctness. This time, the Japanese National Assembly followed the US "Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act" to talk about human rights issues in Xinjiang, and behind it there was the shadow of a conservative parliamentarian group called the "Japan Uyghur Parliamentarians' Union." Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is an adviser to the group.

It is true that there are conservative forces within Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party. But as a country's leader, if "the existence of conservative forces within" is always a reason to shirk political responsibility, then his leadership is questionable. Because conservative forces are by no means the whole of Japanese society. For example, some progressives are firmly opposed to Japan's fabrication of facts on the issue of human rights. As early as May 2021, Mr. Tadashi Murata, an old friend of the author and honorary professor of Yokohama National University, wrote to the author: "There are signs in Japan that ignore historical facts and create lies about Xinjiang... At its root is the ignorance and prejudice of the 'human rights foreign' policy of the US government."

The day after Japan's China-related human rights resolution was promulgated, Mr. Ichihome Saienji, an adviser to the Japan-China Friendship Association, issued a "Statement of Protest," revealing that the resolution was planned by a handful of ultra-right anti-China lawmakers within the Liberal Democratic Party, saying that "the resolution does not represent the will of the people in Japan and also runs counter to Japan's national interests." Although the author is not in Japan at the moment, the Japanese media coverage of the "ice pier" boom still makes the author feel the public opinion in Japan as described by Mr. Saienji Kazuaki.

In addition to the Beijing Winter Olympics and the "ice pier", the hottest topic in the Japanese media is the epidemic in Japan. It should be pointed out that although the national conditions of different countries are different, and the epidemic prevention policies of other countries should not be analyzed by "copying operations", the important reasons for the collapse of the Abe regime and the Suga regime are the failure to control the spread of the epidemic in China, and the key to whether the Kishida regime can become a long-term ruler also lies in the response to the epidemic. After all, the right to life is the greatest human right! (Editor-in-Charge: Leshui)