(RoyalPatriot.com )- After the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe led to a decisive victory for Abe’s conservatives in Japan’s elections, China began voicing concern that the conservative victory may pave the way for Japan to change its pacifist constitution to allow the country to establish a standing military. China claims such a change would encourage Japan to become a “geopolitical thug.”
The state-controlled propaganda outlet Global Times claimed that “many analysts” believe the “obstacles” preventing Japan from changing its “pacifist Constitution” have been lifted with the conservative victory.
It warned that changing the constitution to allow Japan to have a military, Abe’s biggest unfulfilled policy, “will send a dangerous signal to its neighbors” that Japan would “deny the postwar history and the path of peaceful development.”
The Global Times claimed the constitution’s ban on a formal Japanese military restrained “Japan’s militaristic impulse” which it claims is an immutable trait of the Japanese race.
Naturally, the Global Times also found a way to drag the United States into it, claiming Washington is indulging Japan “to play the role as a geopolitical thug.” But, the editorial adds, the United States is also “on guard against Japan’s right-lean tendency” which the Global Times claims would get rid of “Washington’s control.”
Another editorial at the Global Times warned that if Japan’s constitution is changed to allow for a military, horrors like the attack on Pearl Harbor would be recreated.
The editorial also accused the United States of trying to make Japan a “hatchet man” against China. As proof, the editorial cites Secretary of State Antony Blinken personally visiting Japan’s current Prime Minister Kishida to offer condolences over the assassination of Shinzo Abe.
And while Chinese propaganda rails against the conservative election victory in Japan, China’s Foreign Ministry reacted with its usual restraint.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters last Monday that a potential change to Japan’s constitution “receives close attention” from its Asian neighbors and the international community.
He told reporters that Beijing hopes Japan will remain committed “to the path of peaceful development” by learning the “lessons of history.”
