2020-05-16
Western policy authorities must already be beginning their mental exercises on how to obtain compensation from China while avoiding such war risks.
In the ability to conceive such large-scale policies, Japan is no match for the United States and Europe.
The following is a continuation of the previous chapter.
The Media in a State of Mental Paralysis
There is also a historical precedent for this.
One of the causes of the rise of Hitler and the Nazis in Germany was that, after its defeat in the First World War, Germany was pressed by Western countries to pay massive reparations.
In the same way, China may also gamble everything and launch a war.
Western policy authorities must already be beginning their mental exercises on how to obtain compensation from China while avoiding such war risks.
In the ability to conceive such large-scale policies, Japan is no match for the United States and Europe.
Conversely, there is also the possibility that moves to bring down Xi may begin inside the Chinese Communist Party.
There are signs of that as well.
For example, regarding the reckless remarks by the spokesman mentioned earlier, Cui Tiankai, China’s ambassador to the United States, criticized them, saying, “Remarks based on speculation do not help anyone and are harmful.”
This is probably evidence that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not monolithic.
There is also speculation that Vice President Wang Qishan, known as the closest of Xi’s close aides, has distanced himself from Xi and has begun to gain an advantage in the power struggle.
Xi has a weakness that inevitably forces him onto the defensive.
The economy is not functioning.
The Xi administration forcibly restarted operations at factories and elsewhere without waiting for the complete end of infections, but foreign companies that have driven the Chinese economy are moving to review their supply chains.
Japan, too, has a policy of providing subsidies to companies seeking to break away from dependence on China.
It is certain that the “great exodus from China,” which had begun even before the new coronavirus, will become even more full-scale from now on.
If that happens, the myth that “if we leave things to the Communist Party, we can become prosperous” will also collapse.
The March 29 edition of the American newspaper The New York Times published an article titled “The Coronavirus Has Awakened a Sleeping Giant—China’s Youth,” pointing out that “young people have begun to question Communist Party rule, which they had tolerated in exchange for economic prosperity.”
Indeed, the ground beneath the regime’s feet has begun to crumble.
How should Japan respond?
When I look at the movements of politicians and the media, I cannot help but think, regrettably, that they are almost in a state of “mental paralysis.”
Everyone seems to be preoccupied only with the question of “how to contain the infection,” and their thoughts do not reach the essential question: “Who is responsible for this calamity?”
The reason the world has fallen into a catastrophe said to be “the worst since the Second World War” is, to put it mildly, that the Chinese government concealed and neglected the outbreak of the disease and the spread of infection.
We cannot pretend not to see that responsibility.
Is it not only natural to uncover the truth, pursue responsibility, and demand compensation, no matter how enormous the amount may become?
Xi Jinping’s state visit to Japan, scheduled for April, was postponed.
But now, there can no longer be any such thing as a state visit by Xi.
If Japan were to invite him as a state guest when the world is racking its brains over how to pursue China’s responsibility, it would merely become a laughingstock.
In the first place, it is doubtful whether Xi himself can survive.
The United Nations will not remain unscathed either.
The World Health Organization, which should protect the health and lives of the world, sided with China and repeated absurd responses.
When countries moved to impose entry and exit restrictions on China, the WHO opposed them, saying that they would “interfere with travel and trade.”
Its declaration of a pandemic was also late.
On April 14, President Trump announced that the United States would stop funding the WHO.
The WHO, exposed as “China’s agent,” will probably not survive.
The world after the new coronavirus will change drastically.
Japan, too, should move urgently to gather information and formulate strategy.