With money, power and resources, it is not surprising that the former "thousandth gold" intervened, and it is not surprising that Suga and Biden both had to give face.
| Author: Feng Lu
| Editor: Ah Ye
| Editor: Su Su
Although Trump has not yet publicly acknowledged the results of this election, a number of mainstream media in the United States have announced that "Biden won the election", so many leaders of many countries have begun to try their best to "set up" with Biden.
At 8:30 a.m. Tokyo time on November 12, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga preemptively had a transoceanic phone call with Biden. The Tokyo Shimbun said that Suga directly called Biden "the next president of the United States" in the call, indicating that he may be interested in establishing a personal relationship with Biden.
In fact, this phone call was indeed opened by Suga Yoshihide 'going through the back door'——
According to the Japanese media "Nikkei Asian Review", in order to compete for the first call ally in the US Asia-Pacific region, Suga "brushed his face" and asked for foreign aid, and asked his former hand to caroline Kennedy (the eldest daughter of former US President John F. Kennedy) to mediate from it.
The former "thousandth gold", rich and powerful, has the resources, has stood for Obama and Biden many times, and is also the first female ambassador of the United States to Japan. As soon as she intervened, it was not surprising that both Suga and Biden had to give face.
A female ambassador with no diplomatic experience
Caroline seems to have an indissoluble relationship with Japan. The key points in her life are closely related to Japan.
At the age of 20, she traveled with her uncle Edward Kennedy to Hiroshima, Japan. Lush vegetation is everywhere, boats come and go on the docks, but her uncle takes her to the local Peace Memorial Park to lay flowers and tell Caroline about the history of atomic bombing.
"This visit suddenly gave me a strong desire to contribute to a better and more peaceful world." Caroline said as she recalled the past.
In the summer of 1986, Caroline revisited her hometown. She was working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and had just married Hilosberg, a Jewish interior designer 12 years her senior, and the two chose to go to Japan for their honeymoon.
Still in Japan, Caroline, who did not care about political affairs, officially began her political career. In 2013, Caroline, 56, was named Obama's first female U.S. ambassador to Japan. After living in a low-key environment for nearly half a century, Caroline, who had been hiding behind the flash, finally came to the forefront and inherited the family's "political mantle".
Traditionally, U.S. presidents have appointed "important people" to Japan, a key ally. Despite Carolyn's lack of diplomatic experience, her Kennedy family name and deep friendship with Obama have attracted much attention from Japanese politicians.
On the day of taking office, Caroline entered the Japanese Imperial Palace in a carriage, which attracted many people to welcome her. Caroline was also excited: "I look forward to making more friends in Japan and learning about the history and culture of this country." ”
And the first friend she made was Suga Yoshihide. Probably because both of them are low-key, unpretentious, and have the same views on many things, they quickly became friends after they met at work.
• In October 2015, then-U.S. Ambassador to Japan Carolyn Kennedy (first from left) and then-U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Anthony Blinken (third from left) meet with Yoshihide Suga, then Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan , second from right, at the Prime Minister's Residence in Tokyo.
Yoshihide Suga, then Japan's chief cabinet secretary, would have dinner with Caroline every month, talking about the Japan-U.S. alliance, the world trend, and also about local customs and parents. He considered Caroline a brilliant diplomat and publicly supported her friend, saying, "Caroline's inauguration as ambassador has deepened the Japanese people's affinity for the United States." Japan will also be committed to developing friendly relations between Japan and the United States, centered on Ambassador Kennedy. ”
During her three-year stay in office, Caroline visited 35 prefectures in Japan, especially earthquake-stricken areas, to engage in dialogue with local citizens, and also visited Shimonoseki City to plant seedlings in the fields and experience the feeling of doing farm work.
On June 14, 2015, when the U.S. Ambassador to Japan Carolyn Kennedy visited Shimonoseki City in Japan, she personally planted seedlings in the field to experience the feeling of doing farm work.
Behind Obama's historic visit to Hiroshima, the partial return of the US military's northern training ground to Japan, the Japanese prime minister's speech in the US Congress and his visit to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, have also been written by Caroline.
When she left office, the Japanese government lamented one after another: "Such a good ambassador is rare, and I believe that I will continue to do my best for Japan-US relations in the future." ”
Caroline is still functioning, keeping in touch with Suga. In 2019, when Suga visited the United States, he was also invited to Caroline's home, where Caroline's husband cooked himself. Caroline also specially prepared a cake decorated with the Japanese New Year number "Reiwa" to celebrate the reunion with Suga.
With such a deep relationship, Suga Vittor Caroline helps to connect with individuals (Biden), naturally.
Behind-the-scenes aides to the democratic parties
So why did Biden give Caroline so much face? That's a long story.
Caroline is well-known in the United States, known as "American Baby". As Kennedy's only living daughter, she has the power resources left by her family, as well as the trust funds left by her father, and her personal net worth is nearly 500 million US dollars (1 US dollar is about 6.6 yuan). With money and power and resources, she naturally mixed very well.
When Obama ran for president of the United States, Caroline had paid for and contributed to him — donating money to help him win the election, writing speeches herself, building relationships everywhere, and successfully helping him win swing states. Later, she also served as co-chair of Obama's re-election campaign.
NPR commented that Caroline's statement played a crucial role in Obama's successful campaign.
Caroline and Obama
As we all know, Biden served as Obama's campaign partner and served as vice president of the United States during the Obama administration. Behind this, there is also Caroline's recommendation and practice. She has spoken in support of Biden, commenting on his strong mobility. In front of Obama, she also said all the good things for Biden.
Caroline and Biden are close.
In August, the U.S. Democratic Party officially nominated Biden as the 2020 presidential candidate. Caroline, who acted low-key, unusually, appeared on the screen of the Democratic Convention with her son, Jack Schlossberg.
Speaking on behalf of his mother, Schrosberg said: "Times have changed, but the themes of my grandfather's speeches — courage, unity, patriotism — are still as important as they were in the 1960s." We have to have a president who will ask himself what he can do for our country; we need a president who believes that America's best future is still yet to come; we need Joe Biden. ”
Caroline and her son appearing on the democratic convention screen.
Similarly, Caroline said as early as February this year. In a statement in the Boston Globe, she said: "Biden is a calm man who can bring people together. He knew how to get his job done at home and abroad, and what he did was in line with my father's governing philosophy. He's the president Democrats need most. At the same time, she also criticized Trump as a destructive force that weakened the credibility of the United States around the world.
It is not difficult to see that Caroline's partnership with Biden and Obama has a long history, and it is a friendship that can directly call mobile phones. It is no wonder that the Japanese see her as a key role in playing a "mediating role" between Suga and Biden.
It is reported that in fact, as early as the US election, Caroline had proposed to introduce Suga to Biden. It seems that she has broken her heart about Japan-U.S. relations.
Japanese media also predicted that there were many "Japan Pass" officials in the Obama administration, and they are very likely to return to the Biden administration in the future and become a "bridge" for Japan to communicate with the Biden team.
Once ill-fated and avoided politics
At the end of this month, Caroline will celebrate her 63rd birthday. She seems to have escaped the Kennedy family's death "curse" and did not show the adventurous genes of her ancestors' men.
She has experienced a series of family tragedies since she was a child - a younger brother died shortly after birth, her father was assassinated on her 6th birthday, and her brother, who grew up with her, was shipwrecked in 1999 when she and his wife were on a private jet...
Caroline's family.
Perhaps because of her ill-fated fate, Caroline is conservative and conservative, distinguishing it from the sharp, noisy style of New York politicians. After returning home as ambassador to Japan, her new job was as a lawyer and writer — a freelancer or a housewife.
She transports her children to and from school every day, and her home is full of books, so she will not show her face until she has to. Occasionally appearing in public to mix a handful of politics is limited to a few key moments.
So in the eyes of most Americans, she was the poor little girl at Kennedy's funeral in 1963, quickly covering her face with her hands when she saw the camera.
Caroline attends her father's funeral with her brother, and their mother stands behind them in a black veil.
There are mixed reviews of her political abilities. Some people praised her for her calm and focused, while others ridiculed her for being just a "vase" from a political tycoon, relying only on her surname to gain her current advantage.
She was poorly eloquent, often asking her speakers to email media interviews, and then once when she finally came forward for an interview with The New York Times, she nagged and repeated the phrase "you know" repeatedly 142 times throughout the interview, becoming a political joke at the time. However, she does not seem to be interested in this, and devotes most of her energy to the publication of books such as law, history, and literature.
As for her political experience in Japan, she can be called very hard, but it has also caused controversy in Japan - she published on Twitter in Japanese and English that "the practice of rounding up and killing dolphins is inhumane" and said that "opposing the killing of dolphins is also the position of the US government", which once offended the Japanese people.
Today, Caroline, who has a halo in the United States and Japan, in addition to helping Japan "brush her face" to dredge up political connections, what will she do? Is it really the case that when she first set foot on Japanese soil more than 40 years ago, she said, "We must work for a better and more peaceful world"?
It's hard to say. After all, she has voluntarily placed her status as a politician behind lawyers and writers, and political activity is still only her occasional "side hustle" of playing tickets.