Abe also made deepening Japanese ties to the U.S. Abe also sparked Chinese outrage by visiting the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo which honors Japanese war dead, including convicted “Class A” war criminals. would defend Taiwan in the face of a Chinese military invasion, declaring that “the people of Taiwan share our universal values” and deserve a robust defense. In February, Abe called for the Biden administration to abandon its policy of “ strategic ambiguity” regarding whether the U.S. Abe became an outspoken advocate for Japan to protect Taiwan since he stepped down as prime minister in 2020, making him a target of Chinese Foreign Ministry criticism. The Chinese government calls World War II the “Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-fascist War.”īeijing has also bridled at Tokyo’s increasingly vocal support for defending Taiwan from possible Chinese aggression. Those sentiments are seeded by both the horrors Japan inflicted on China in World War II as well as long-simmering territorial disputes over the control of the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands in the South China Sea. The anti-Abe online commentary reflects how the Chinese educational system - geared to a national “ patriotic education” curriculum threaded with a virulent anti-Japanese historical narrative - has conditioned a generation of young Chinese to revile Japan.Ī condolence book open to the page President Joe Biden signed for former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe rests on a table at the Japanese ambassador's residence in Washington, Friday, July 8, 2022. “This unexpected incident should not be linked to China-Japan relations,” he said. Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Zhao Lijian refused to comment on Friday about netizens’ reactions. The Chinese embassy in Tokyo said in a statement that the government was “shocked” by Abe’s assassination and credited him with “the improvement and development of China-Japan relations.” But Chinese government censors haven’t removed the anti-Abe comments from the internet, suggesting a degree of official tolerance.

“We are not qualified to forgive the wicked for the millions of compatriots who died in the war against China and the Nanjing Massacre! ! ! Don’t forget national humiliation! ! !” said a post. Users also pointed to Thursday’s anniversary of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, which marked the start of Japan’s full-scale invasion of China in 1937. “Good and evil will always be rewarded,” said another. “This person will be written in Japanese history,” a top comment said as “Shinzo Abe’s death” became one of the top trending items Friday on Weibo. Below a CCTV news post reporting Abe’s death that received 2.55 million likes, some commentators celebrated the incident.

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