Chinese reaction to Abe's death is everything except sad or humane

Observers say Chinese reaction is savage. This reaction can be attributed to contemporary communist country's highly negative perception of the Japanese longest serving prime minister Shinzo Abe.

The reaction in a section of communist China's internet to the recent assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo is absolutely antithetical to the spirit of humanity and modern civilization.

In the wake of Abe's assassination, one Chinese wrote on their social media, "As a Japanese politician who was hostile to China and was killed by another Japanese, feeling happy should be the reaction of a normal Chinese." Another regretted the Abe assassination had not occurred a day earlier (July 7) to coincide with the anniversary of the Marco Polo Bridge incident (1937) which had triggered the full-scale Japanese invasion of China.

Observers say such a reaction is savage. It is against the spirit of the ancient Chinese tradition which, like it is in most of the Oriental world, is one of mourning the death of anyone, save a popular political figure like Abe. The Chinese reaction in the case can be attributed to contemporary communist country's highly negative perception of Abe. They viewed Abe as a "representative of a Japanese right-wing" who had been in denial about the "war crimes" imperial Japan committed during its rule in China.

The Chinese had been furious that Abe continued to visit the controversial Yasukuni Shrine which honors Japanese war criminals. They viewed it as sending a message to them that, in his view, Japan's behaviour during the period was all justified.

Many Chinese did not seem to like Abe, for they feared his attempts to revoke the country's pacifist constitution would lead to fresh Japanese military revanchism and that might threaten China again as it did in the past.

The observers forecast the Chinese reaction on the Abe assassination might aggravate the ongoing friction between Beijing and Tokyo. Abe was a great leader. He goes down in history as Japan's longest-serving Prime Minister. He was the leader of the largest faction in Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party. After Abe's assassination, his party, currently led by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, has won a sweeping victory in Japan's upper house elections. Kishida has vowed to "build on Abe's legacy". He said he would push forward with "swiftly proposing the revision of Japan's US-drafted pacifist Constitution".

Given Abe's well-known nationalist agenda, the Kishida course may not be to the liking of communist China. Communist China might be fearing a non-pacifist Japan would acquire nuclear weapons and not hesitate to use them, if necessary. China and Japan have a long-standing conflict over islands in the East China Sea, the Senkaku to Japan and the Diaoyu to China. China has disputes with its neighbours in the South China Sea too.

(Jagdish N. Singh is a senior journalist based in New Delhi. He is also Senior Distinguished Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, New York)

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