Original Title: Japan’s New Minister of Foreign Affairs: Knowing China and Beauty
The pragmatism of Kishida’s diplomacy
Means to balance public opinion and diplomatic needs
But ideology is not under consideration
Journalist/Cao Ran
In addition to a Japanese flag, the reception rooms in the offices of Japanese parliamentarians often display gifts received by parliamentarians from various places. Lin Fang is putting a double-sided Hunan embroidery in the most conspicuous position. When there are visitors, he will enthusiastically introduce this gift he received during his visit to Hunan, China: “Flowers can be seen on both sides!”
In November 2021, 60-year-old Lin Fang was appointed by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, former Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso, and other high-level Liberal Democratic Party leaders opposed the appointment of the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, saying that Lin Fangzheng was only a junior member of the House of Representatives and was suspected of being “pro-China.” Lin Fangzheng, who is known for his gentleness, did not respond directly. However, his assistance to Fumio Kishida in defeating the Hosoda faction led by Abe has made the Japanese media call him “Abe’s old enemy.”
Professor of International Relations at the University of Tokyo, Masayoshi Kawashima, said in an interview with China News Weekly that at present, the new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and the new secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party Toshimitsu Motegi have experience as the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The diplomatic concepts of Kishida, Mogi, and Lin Yoshima are similar. Try to find the best balance between China and the United States. Therefore, Japan’s foreign policy or the “Big Three” will go hand in hand for some time to come.
“In Japan, if the Prime Minister lacks interest in foreign policy, the Minister of Foreign Affairs will play a major role; if the Prime Minister himself is interested, the Prime Minister will play a leading role.” Said Kawashima.
“One Cabinet, One Minister”
On September 9, 2021, Lin Fangzheng attended a special press conference organized by the Foreign Press Club of Japan as the assistant of Fumio Kishida to participate in the election of the president of the Democratic Party. When asked about his evaluation of another president candidate, Taro Kono, Lin Fangzheng paused and said with a smile: “He sometimes yells when he is too emotional. I don’t think he is a hawk, but he It’s changing.”
Lin Fangzheng and Kono Taro have known each other for more than 30 years, and they have many similarities: they came from a family, graduated from a prestigious American school, entered politics in the mid-1990s, and are now the new-generation leaders of the Aso and Kishida groups in the Liberal Democratic Party. After Kishida Fumio became Japanese Prime Minister, Lin Fangzheng and Kono Taro have a new point in common: the person most likely to become the next prime minister.
In 1961, Lin Fangzheng was born into a businessman and politician family in Shimonoseki City, Yamaguchi Prefecture. His great-grandfather, grandfather, and father all served as members of the House of Representatives, but never as prime minister. “Working briefly in business, then politics” is the path set by the family for Lin Fangzheng. After graduating from the Faculty of Law at the University of Tokyo, as a salesman of Mitsui & Co., he traveled to Greece, Turkey, Brazil, Argentina, the United States, Thailand and other places. In 1991, he entered Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government for a master’s degree. In the meantime, because his father Lin Yilang became Minister of Finance (Ministry of Finance), Lin Fangzheng dropped out of school and returned to China to serve as his father’s secretary. Lin Fang was graduating from Harvard in 1994 and was elected as a senator the following year and entered politics.
At Harvard, Lin Fangzheng had already demonstrated the ability to be a “born diplomat.” His Japanese English pronunciation is not standard, but his expression is fluent, and he won the opportunity of internship in the office of the US Senator. At the time of “Containing Japan”, the American society’s impression of Japan is becoming increasingly negative. Senator Rose asked the interns to sort out a few “ideas that are helpful to the relationship between the United States and Japan.” Lin Fangzheng quickly came up with a plan to “allow US government officials to work and exchange in the Japanese government”, and it took six months to complete it into a bill. In April 1994, the Mansfield Fund project based on this was passed in the U.S. Congress and has been in operation ever since.
Lin Fangzheng later recalled that this experience had a great impact on his subsequent political career in Japan, and in particular made him realize the importance of communication and exchange. Madam Kawashima told China News Weekly that he had heard that Lin Fangzheng was “a little angry” when he was young, but he didn’t feel it in actual contact. He just felt that Lin Fangzheng was straightforward and did not detour. After more than 20 years, Kono Taro, who became a member of the House of Representatives at the same time, was controversial because of his “extraordinary speech”, while the plump and friendly Lin Fang was often questioned by public opinion on “too moderate.”
Wang Xianen, a professor at Juntendo University in Japan, has been in contact with the two Liberal Democratic Party “stars of tomorrow”. He told China News Weekly that Lin Fangzheng gave people a more polite and refined feeling than Kono Taro, with the demeanor of the older generation of politicians such as Nakasone Yasuhiro, and “has a Confucian style, like an intellectual.”
Duan Yuezhong, editor-in-chief of Japan Overseas Chinese Press Publishing House, has also been in friendship with Lin Fangzheng for nearly 20 years. He recalled to China News Weekly that when he met Lin Fangzheng at the reception and presented him with a book, he would smile and pick up the book for a group photo. This is very similar to Kishida Fumio, but “not all congressmen do this.”
In 2008, Lin Fangzheng won the first cabinet minister post. On August 2, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda appointed him as the Minister of Defense. In the second year, he briefly served as the special minister in charge of economic and financial affairs, and only worked for two months.
In this context, when Lin Fangzheng was appointed Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries by the new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in December 2012, the outside world regarded this as a means of balancing the small factions of Abe and was not optimistic about Lin Fangzheng’s prospects. In addition to his constituency feud with Abe, the Wall Street Journal questioned Lin Fangzheng’s lack of agricultural knowledge and experience. But in fact, Lin Fangzheng worked until 2014 and returned briefly in 2015. His term of office was more than two years. He was the longest-lived among the 13 Ministers of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries during Abe’s administration.
“All-rounder” on the diplomatic stage
As Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Lin Fang is shouldering an important diplomatic task: presiding over the “final negotiations” with the International Whaling Commission. Since joining the International Whaling Commission in 1951, Japan has been in constant conflict with the Commission on the prohibition of commercial whaling. Both Lin Fangzheng and Abe are from Yamaguchi Prefecture, where the whaling industry is developed. Lin Fangzheng also served as the secretary-general of the Senate Federation of Whaling Members. The final result of the negotiations ended with Japan’s formal withdrawal from the International Whaling Commission in 2018 and the resumption of commercial whaling starting in 2019.
When Fumio Kishida wins the election in 2021, Lin Fang is revealing to the media that after Abe’s sudden resignation in 2020, Kishida has no confidence to participate in the presidential election. It was after Lin Fangzheng’s hard persuasion that he was willing to compete with Yoshihide Suga. At that time, Lin Fangzheng was already the “chairman” of the Kishida faction, that is, the second-in-command in charge of presiding over the meetings of members of the faction.
“When Mr. Kishida did not make a decision, he was considering various possibilities.” Lin Fangzheng explained. Kishida Fumio’s hesitation is not unreasonable: The Kishida faction has only about 30 members of the House of Representatives. It is the fourth and fifth small faction in the party. After a split, no Japanese prime minister has been born since 1993. It holds a moderate liberalism. The position of Abe and Aso is the furthest away.
But in 2020, Kishida lost his confidence to Yoshihide Suga at a weak disadvantage in the Liberal Democratic Party congressman vote, rebuilding his confidence. This year, Fumio Kishida did not hesitate to choose to continue to run for the election, and successfully won the position of president, and led the Liberal Democratic Party to reverse the decline of Yoshihide Suga’s low support rate and win the House of Representatives election.
How did the Kishida faction do it? Lin Fang publicly stated before the election that factions within the Liberal Democratic Party have undergone “structural changes.” Except for nearly a hundred independent MPs who have no factions, members of all factions will also tend to independently choose voters in consideration of their political future. Facts have proved that Kono Taro failed to get the unanimous support of his faction in the voting.
Lin Fangzheng has contributed a lot to strengthening the internal unity of the Kishida faction. Duan Yuezhong has observed that for a long time, Lin Fangzheng has been very concerned about the young congressmen and the candidates of the faction who have lost the election. For the unsuccessful members, he will still go to the platform and call for everyone’s support.
Fumiko Sasaki, Assistant Professor of International Relations at Columbia University, pointed out to China News Weekly that Lin Fang had served as the chairman of the budget committee in the Senate and had long accumulated in the economic and fiscal fields, and was regarded as an “all-rounder” by political figures familiar with him. This election is just the first time he has fully demonstrated his talents.
Say “Pragmatism” five times
On the morning of November 11th, Lin Fangzheng held the first press conference after taking office as Minister of Foreign Affairs. With a trademark smile, he announced his resignation from the post of chairman of the Japan-China Friendship Parliamentary Union (Japan-China Parliamentary Union) for four years, in order to “avoid unnecessary misunderstandings.”
In the previous 20 years, he had personally experienced the ups and downs of Sino-Japanese relations and served in the Abe government for a long time. However, Lin Fangzheng has never changed his position on China-related issues. He visits China as a member of the Japan-China Friendship Parliamentary Union (Japan-China Parliamentary Union), director of affairs, and chairman whenever he is on vacation or during Japan’s Golden Week. When Sino-Japanese relations are improving, he strives to promote more economic and trade exchanges; when Japanese public opinion on China deteriorates, he advocates that “visiting China can promote the improvement of relations between the two countries.”
When Lin Fangzheng’s great-grandfather Lin Pingshiro ran the Chunfanlou Hotel where the Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed, he met Sun Yat-sen, and his family still keeps the banner of “fraternity” written by Sun Yat-sen. Lin Fangzheng’s father, Lin Yilang, served as the president of the Japan-China Parliamentary Federation. Duan Yuezhong recalled that Lin Yilang loved Chinese wine, and once talked about Chinese wine culture at the dinner table, he would talk endlessly. Wang Xianen, a professor at Juntendo University in Japan, said that Lin Yilang also knows about Chinese poetry and calligraphy.
However, Kono Taro’s father, Yohei Kono, is also a well-known politician of the “Knowledge School”. However, after entering politics, Kono Taro came closer to emerging hawks such as Shinzo Abe and Yoshihide Suga, publicly stating that “Yohei Kono is Yohei Kono, and Taro Kono is Taro Kono”. Kawashima said frankly that the new generation of politicians has never experienced wars, and “almost no pro-China ideologically.”
Wang Xianen told China News Weekly that Lin Fangzheng finally chose the same path as his father’s “Knowing China” because of the political circle he was in after entering politics. Noda Takeshi, a senior politician of the Liberal Democratic Party and president of the Japan-China Association, who has been elected to the House of Representatives 16 times, has been training Lin Fangzheng, hoping that he will become Minister of Foreign Affairs and even Prime Minister. The late Shinichiro Shirainishi, chairman of the Japan-China Association, also had a great influence on Lin Fangzheng.
In 2004, Lin Fangzheng and 14 members of the Japan-China Parliamentary Federation had a discussion with the delegation of the State Council Information Office of China at the New Otani Hotel. The deputy head of the delegation, Cai Mingzhao, later wrote in a reminiscence article that Lin Fangzheng was the first to speak, frankly “The biggest problem at present is Koizumi’s visit to the Yasukuni Shrine. China specifically mentioned comparing Japan with Germany, but most Japanese people don’t know Germany. How do you do it”. After that, the meeting greatly exceeded the scheduled time, and representatives from both sides also jointly toasted the friendship between China and Japan for generations.
In recent years, such voices have become more and more precious in Japanese politics. Adam Bronson, a professor of Japanese studies at Durham University, pointed out that during the Abe administration, Japanese society as a whole experienced a cultural transformation of “nationalist expansion”. Although the failure to amend the constitution shows the resilience of Japanese society, and Abe’s defense of multilateralism also shows that his policy is pragmatic rather than right-wing, but incidents such as whaling have actually brought about a revival of right-wing thinking in Japanese society. Wang Xian’en’s impression is that since the twists and turns in Sino-US relations, Japanese people who are friendly to China have “before righteous and confident but are now vulnerable to attack.”
At the same time, Lin Fangzheng, Kono Taro, and Kishida Senator Yoichi Miyazawa and Yoko Kamikawa, who also served as ministers in the Abe administration, are all “Kimitsu”. Lin Fangzheng, Miyazawa Yoichi, and Kamikawa Yoko graduated from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Both Kamikawa Yoko and Lin Fangzheng had interned in the US Senate’s office and often participated in activities organized by the Harvard Japan Club together.
Following the tradition of the “U.S.-Japan Alliance”, on November 13, Lin Fangzheng made the first foreign minister phone call after taking office to the U.S. Secretary of State Blincoln. He later stated that Brinken assured him on the phone that the United States has a defense obligation against the so-called “Senkaku Islands” (that is, my country’s Diaoyu Islands and their affiliated islands), and both sides agreed that “peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait are very important.”
“In the short term, the Kishida government’s policy in coordinating with the US Indo-Pacific strategy will not change, and may seldom mention the terms of the Abe administration such as’free and open Indo-Pacific’.” Sasaki Fumiko said. Lin Fangzheng’s explanation for this is: “When you become the Prime Minister or Minister of Foreign Affairs, you can’t immediately make a dramatic change in foreign and security policies.” At the September press conference, when asked about the diplomatic stance of the Kishida faction. , He said “pragmatism” five times in a row.
According to Masayoshi Kawashima’s analysis of China News Weekly, the Kishida administration’s balanced diplomatic thinking may be to keep the alliance between the United States and Japan unchanged, and then to find room for cooperation with China. “Can you find a field like Sino-US climate change cooperation? Could it be RCEP? Could it be economic and trade cooperation? It is still relatively vague.”
At the September press conference, Lin Fangzheng said frankly: “Don’t use Friendly to describe (China policy).” He said that the pragmatism of Kishida’s diplomacy refers to balancing public opinion and diplomatic needs, but ideology is not within the scope of consideration. I can say that Fumio Kishida would be the most pragmatic.”
Sasaki Fumiko pointed out that the only certainty is that Japan’s foreign policy will have strong leadership. The combination of Kishida Fumio and Lin Fangzheng avoided the split of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Liberal Democratic Party into two factions, “pro-China” and “pro-American”, but will Form a strong and consistent policy. “It’s like during the Abe administration, whether he was tough on China or when he wanted to build more constructive Sino-Japanese relations, he could do it.”
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