During a Sept. 26 meeting between U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo, the two leaders affirmed their nations’ support for one another and condemned Chinese communist aggression in the Taiwan Strait.
Abe was widely regarded as one of the foremost champions of the U.S.–Japan alliance. He was hailed as a defender of democracy for his efforts to design and implement the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue between Japan, the United States, Australia, and India—colloquially referred to as the “Quad.”
“The Vice President praised former Prime Minister Abe as a champion of the U.S.–Japan Alliance and a free and open Indo-Pacific, and affirmed the United States’ commitment to continue building on that legacy,” the White House statement reads.
Harris to Lead Regional Mission
Harris’s visit to Japan comes a week after President Joe Biden said the United States would militarily defend Taiwan from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which rules China as a single-party state.Taiwan is a self-governing democracy and has never been controlled by the CCP.
The United States maintains a “One China” policy, which formally recognizes but doesn’t endorse the CCP’s “One China” principle. Despite having no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, the United States is legally bound to provide the island nation with the arms necessary to defend itself.
Taiwan Conflict Would Be ‘Devastating’
The Harris–Kishida meeting also comes just days after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with his CCP counterpart, Wang Yi, on the sidelines of a U.N. summit in New York.Blinken expanded on the issue during a Sep. 25 interview on “60 Minutes.”
He also said a conflict between the CCP and Taiwan would be “devastating” and have global ramifications because of the two nations’ vital importance to the global economy, particularly in the production of semiconductor chips.
To that end, Blinken said the United States was reacting to the CCP’s unilateral effort to change the status quo regarding Taiwan, something that both nations have pledged to not do.
“We had a conversation about our different approaches to Taiwan, and I reiterated what the president has said, and what he’s said clearly and consistently,” Blinken said.
“Our continued adherence to the One China Policy, our determination that the differences [between the CCP and Taiwan] be resolved peacefully, our insistence that peace and stability be maintained in the Taiwan Straits, and our deep concern that China was taking actions to try to change that status quo. That’s what the issue is.”