Based on an essay by Sakurai Yoshiko in Shukan Shincho, this article examines the danger of a world order dominated by China through the insights of former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, China’s pressure on Singapore, the detention of Japanese citizens, and Chinese vessels’ intrusions around the Senkaku Islands. Amid the U.S.-China confrontation, it argues that Japan must cooperate closely with the United States, revise its Constitution, strengthen its military power, and reinforce its economic strength.

2020-01-09
Amid the struggle between the United States and China, Japan should devote all its efforts to cooperation and coordination with the United States, which values freedom and democracy.
It must hurry to revise the Constitution, strengthen its military power, and reinforce its economic strength.
The following is from an essay by Sakurai Yoshiko, published at the very end of yesterday’s Shukan Shincho under the title “If China Gains Hegemony, This Is What the World Will Become.”
Sakurai is Kūkai and Saichō living in the present age.
It is no exaggeration at all to say that, in her insight and spirit for governing and defending the nation, she is Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu living today.
Needless to say, standing at the exact opposite pole from her are the opposition party politicians, the reporters of the Asahi Shimbun, and the anchors of NHK.
The other day, a friend of mine became indignant about the faces of opposition party politicians and said, “Not a single one of them is worth an annual income of 50 million yen. All the more so because that money is paid from taxes!”
In Reiwa 2, Japan’s road cannot possibly be smooth; it will likely be a severe year.
Before the two great powers shaking the world order, Japan is being called upon to show its resolve.
If the United States continues to pursue America First, and China continues to fill the vacuum created by it, what kind of world will a China-centered world become, and how should Japan respond at that time?
The possibility that China will replace the United States is by no means high.
Still, let us imagine that world.
Lee Kuan Yew, the late former prime minister and founding father of Singapore, who had interacted with successive Chinese leaders from Deng Xiaoping onward, including Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, and who deeply understood the thinking and character of the Chinese Communist Party, said the following.
“Will an industrialized and powerful China treat the countries of Southeast Asia as benevolently as the United States has since 1945? Singapore cannot be sure. The same is probably true of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. We already know that China is becoming more confident and wants to take a tougher stance.” (Lee Kuan Yew, by Graham Allison and others, BCSIA.)
Lee also said the following.
“China asked us Singaporeans to show more respect as its influence grew stronger. It said that all countries, whether large or small, are equal, and that China does not seek hegemony. But when we do something they do not like, they say that we have offended 1.3 billion people and that we should know our place.” (Ibid.)
No matter how beautifully its words may be adorned, China has no idea that it is “equal with every country.”
In 2004, when Lee was still alive and was about to hand over the office of prime minister to his son, Lee Hsien Loong, the younger Lee visited Taiwan “personally and unofficially” before taking office as prime minister.
He had visited Taiwan before as well, and he himself had not fully grasped China’s true fearfulness.
China reacted fiercely to the actions of the next prime minister and threatened that they would “bring serious consequences.”
Frightened, he declared in his speech at the National Day Rally in August of that year that he “does not support Taiwan independence.”
Xi’s Visit to Japan
At the ASEAN Regional Forum, or ARF, foreign ministers’ meeting in 2010, then Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi glared at the foreign ministers of other countries and declared:
“China is a big country, and the other countries are small countries. That is an undeniable fact.”
Lee died in March 2015, and at the Asia Security Conference held in Singapore in May of the same year, China, which was supposedly not seeking hegemony, exposed the coercive behavior of a hegemonic state.
At the time, because the Obama administration’s inaction continued and China was reclaiming land in the South China Sea at tremendous speed, Lee Hsien Loong, who was in a position to deliver the keynote speech, had no choice but to mention the South China Sea issue.
With the international community watching, he did not criticize China’s large-scale reclamation, but criticized the small-scale reclamation by Vietnam and the Philippines.
It was obvious that this was a speech made out of fear of China’s anger.
In May of the previous year, President Xi Jinping had spoken before representatives of forty-seven countries at the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia, or CICA, saying that “Asia’s security must be protected by the people of Asia” and that “no country can monopolize security or infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of other countries.”
It was a declaration that China would hold hegemony over Asia, which accounts for about 60 percent of the world’s population, and it was a check against the United States’ rebalancing policy that emphasized the Asia-Pacific.
In October 2017, at the 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi held up “socialism with Chinese characteristics” and pledged the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”
He also vowed that, by the centenary of the founding of the state, the Chinese Communists would stand towering among the peoples of the world.
At that time, what kind of country will China have become?
When asked whether he thought a wealthy and powerful China would become a democratic country, Lee immediately answered, “No.”
That is because it is clear that democracy would collapse the rule of the Chinese Communist Party.
Lee also pointed out that there had never once been any element of democracy in Chinese history, and that the Chinese people do not seek democracy.
What we must now recognize is this kind of foreignness in China.
It is foolish to measure the Chinese people by our own value standards.
This spring, Xi will visit Japan.
The Japanese and Chinese governments praise each other, saying that relations between the two countries have become very good, but is reality not entirely different?
Many problems exist between the two countries.
China’s abnormal military expansion, the Senkaku Islands, the East China Sea gas fields, Yasukuni Shrine, historical perception, theft of intellectual property rights, unjust detention of Japanese citizens — the problems are truly piled high.
Among them, the two issues of the detention of Japanese citizens and the Senkaku Islands have continued to be raised by Prime Minister Abe in summit meetings with Xi since October 2018, and again in June, November, and December 2019.
How has China responded to that?
Is it a response that allows one to say that Japan-China relations are “very good”?
Ignoring Prime Minister Abe’s Requests
Prime Minister Abe visited China in October 2018 and held a summit meeting with Xi.
In the subsequent summit meetings on November 4 and December 23, 2019, he also requested the release of detained Japanese citizens.
Yet there has been no response whatsoever from Xi’s side.
On the contrary, ignoring Prime Minister Abe’s requests, the Chinese government continued one after another to hand down guilty verdicts against detained Japanese citizens.
In December 2018, two people received prison sentences.
A man from Sapporo was sentenced to twelve years in prison, and a former Chinese woman who had become naturalized as Japanese was sentenced to six years.
In May 2019, three other people were sentenced to prison terms of up to fifteen years.
In October of the same year, a male employee of Itochu Corporation was sentenced to three years in prison.
During the same year, another Japanese man in his fifties was newly detained, but the case was not made public until the end of November.
In September, a professor at Hokkaido University who visited China at the invitation of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a Chinese government think tank, was detained and then released in November.
What is unbelievable in addition to all this is that, in every case, the Chinese side does not publish the written judgments.
From the Japanese side, we cannot know at all what the charges were or what grounds existed.
Even after Prime Minister Abe directly raised the issue with Xi, such opaque and unreasonable detentions have been carried out, and prison sentences have been handed down.
One cannot feel any enthusiasm or sincerity on the part of China’s leaders toward improving relations with Japan.
Perhaps there is almost no respect for Japan at all.
It goes without saying now that Chinese vessels intrude into the waters around the Senkaku Islands almost every day.
Can this be called Japan-China friendship?
A world ruled by China would likely be based on this kind of situation.
Amid the struggle between the United States and China, Japan should devote all its efforts to cooperation and coordination with the United States, which values freedom and democracy.
It must hurry to revise the Constitution, strengthen its military power, and reinforce its economic strength.