As an election for the leader of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is drawing near, Shizo Abe, the incumbent chief cabinet secretary, has overwhelmed his opponents to become the most popular candidate to succeed the outgoing Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. So, his attitude on China issue and his diplomatic practice and skills increasingly become the focus of public concern.

With the passage of time and changes in circumstances, Abe, as a possible successor to Koizumi, has gradually displayed his ambiguous tactics on Japan's ties with China. He has supported Koizumi's controversial visits to the Yasukuni war shrine. Abe has avoided saying whether he will visit the Shrine and translated such obscure tactics into his foreign affairs work.

Abe said "relations between Japan and China is one of the most important bilateral ties" in a positive speech delivered at the "Beijing-Tokyo Forum" on August 3, and on the very same day, he released the news partly hidden and partly distinct on his pilgrimage to the Yasukuni Shrine. Why should Abe hemmed and hawed on the shrine visit with a repeated use of his ambiguous tactics?

One reason is to ease from domestic political pressures and pave way for him to assume office. For a period of time, Koizumi has suffered setbacks in external relations with neighboring countries for his perverse actions on the issue of Yasukuni Shrine visit and drawn criticisms on the negative effects from the Japanese economic circle, mainstream media and inside the LDP. In such a situation, straight-forward talks on the shrine visit will surely intensify contradictions. Since Abe comes from the Hawkish camp and does not need to vindicate his hard-liner stance to the political force of national conservatism, and it is all the more favorable for him to pass himself off with a political posture to improve Japanese ties with neighboring nations.

Another reason is to comply with the strategic needs of the United States in East Asia and alleviate the relationships among major powers appropriately. In term of geopolitical relations, Koizumi has ossified his country's ties with China and the Republic of Korea to such an extent to overstep the demand of its US ally. Meanwhile, the display at the Yushukan Museum of the shrine merely shows what the wartime situations were, totally negating the Tokyo Trial of Japanese war criminals at the end of Word War II. The challenge, too, obliged the US Congress to resound with voices to urge the Japanese prime minister to stop with his shrine visit. At a very sensitive moment, Abe knows very well that his temporary halt to the shrine pilgrimage in near future is in line with the aspiration of the U.S.

Moreover, the ambiguity in Abe's tactics is also aimed at "making the best use of advantages while avoiding disadvantages." There were a reservoir of irrefutable, ironclad evidence of Japanese aggression against neighboring nations in history, and so those victimized countries are naturally situated at the commanding height of morality. So, Abe is "wiser" and even "more flexible" than Koizumi as he is trying hard to temporarily sidestep the focus of struggle, which he clearly knows that his country was in the wrong.

Then, what impact the ambiguous tactics of Abe's will be brought to Sino-Japanese ties? Those who aspire for better Sino-Japanese ties feel nothing but a bit chilly and worried in the face of unpredictable, changing circumstances. Abe said "China is urging Japanese prime minister not to visit a controversial war shrine, an important precondition for relations with China. But he refers China's urge as erroneous. This precisely attests his lack of sincere attitude on the retrospection of history.

To Abe and his think tank advisers around him, they may consider themselves wise and successful with their "ambiguous tactics," but they seem to forget the simple truth that "all tricks will lose to sincerity," as the Chinese saying goes. And for leaders of Japan, the Yasukuni Shrine visit is an issue whether they want to solve, and not an issue whether it can be resolved. In the final analysis, Abe has to use evidence or rather concrete deeds to back up an adequate proof of whether he truly attaches importance to relations with China.

Of cause, people have also become fully recognized Japan as a plural society interwoven with all kinds of interests. And they all the more realize that the adoption of the correct way to overstep history not only conforms to the Japanese national interest, and will also bring glad tidings for the new Abe government in sight.

By People's Daily Online