In his speech on Japan-Taiwan relations for a forum organized by Taiwanese think tank the Institute for National Policy Research, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe mentioned several points:

1. In the economic field, Abe explicitly expressed Japan’s support for Taiwan's participation in the CPTPP and he emphasized that Japan and Taiwan should strengthen cooperation in the semiconductor industry chain and other conventional contents.

2. Abe focused on China's military threat, saying that China's military spending has skyrocketed 42 times over the past 30 years and now exceeds Japan's defense spending by as much as four times. In the next three decades, China is expected to increase its military spending by at least 7% per year, so this period of time will be the most important and crisis-filled era for the world.

3. Abe said that during his tenure as the Prime Minister, he reminded Xi Jinping every time he met with him not to misjudge Japan's determination to defend the Senkaku Islands (Diaoyu Islands). At the same time, if China violates Taiwan by force, it will pose a major danger to Japan's national territory and Japan cannot allow such a thing to happen.

“A Taiwan emergency is a Japanese emergency, and therefore an emergency for the Japan-U.S. alliance. People in Beijing, President Xi Jinping in particular, should never have a misunderstanding in recognizing this,” Abe said.

He further mentioned that, “Japan, Taiwan and all the people who believe in democracy need to keep urging President Xi Jinping and other Chinese Communist Party leaders repeatedly not to step onto a wrong path”.

Abe’s move is confusing from China’s perspective. Either when the Taiwan Strait decision was made, China would not think that Japan would react in this way, which is of course a miscalculation, and in this case, there will be a fierce criticism against Japan. Alternatively, it could be that Japan’s move was originally expected and that China would just respond to it calmly. Almost a year ago, ANBOUND has already clearly determined what decision Japan would take now.