Abe's 'values diplomacy' goes against the grain

Some people have called Abe's foreign policy neo-Cold War diplomacy, as is aggravating tensions between China and Japan. Others said Abe was just making an easy excuse for his right-wing policies.

During his visit to Washington in February, Abe tried to show that the Japan-US alliance had been completely revived, and he repeatedly emphasized the danger of an increasingly powerful China.

But contrary to his expectations, US President Barack Obama did not echo these sentiments to the same degree. The usual formal dinner was omitted, and even the official document that was released as a joint statement was extremely simple, containing only three paragraphs dealing with the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The Sunnylands summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Obama in June unleashed copious speculation in Japan, especially when the US told Abe that there would be no meeting with Obama during the just-concluded G8 summit in Northern Ireland, which served as a reminder in Japan that the country was left in the dark until the last minute when former US president Richard Nixon visited Beijing in 1972, and was ignored when former President Bill Clinton visited China in 1998.

The ongoing tension between China and Japan over the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea, also named the Senkakus in Japan, among other issues, was raised during the informal summit between Xi and Obama. Tokyo takes the position that no territorial dispute exists over the islets.

However, in order to keep on the right side of the US, Abe was said to have told Obama in a telephone conversion that Japan is keeping the door open for dialogue with China.

To achieve that, Abe needs to show his sincerity to China, instead of badmouthing its neighbor to other countries, upgrading Japan's forces and moving them closer to Chinese territory.

The author is China Daily's Tokyo bureau chief. E-mail: caihong@chinadaily.com.cn