On July 8 this year, the most magical international political incident of 2022 suddenly occurred in Japan. Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was given a speech on the streets of Nara. When he was 41 years old, Toru Yamakawa was attacked with a homemade gun at close range. Although he was sent to the hospital for treatment as soon as possible, he eventually died of excessive injuries and failed treatment.
On July 12, Shinzo Abe's funeral was held in Zengshangji Temple in Tokyo. Since it is a private funeral, the attendees are basically friends and relatives of the Abe family . At the vigil ceremony that began on the evening of the 11th, more than 2,500 political, economic and international experts, including the current Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, went to mourn.
Although Shinzo Abe himself has been "invaded", the Japanese political circle does not want the prime minister who served the longest term since World War II to suddenly bid farewell to the political arena and completely lose his influence. So after his personal funeral, he also began to plan for state funerals.
On August 26, Beijing time, the Japanese cabinet meeting finally decided after consultation and agreed to hold a "state funeral" for Shinzo Abe, and specially allocated 250 million yen (approximately RMB 12.48 million) as state funeral funds, and was held in Japan Budou Hall in Tokyo on September 27.
The funerals of the current and former heads of state have always been considered an important international political activity, especially the state funeral that enjoys national standards, which is a direct proof of the good or bad relationship between the host and other countries.
According to insiders of the Japanese government, Japan has issued invitations to 195 diplomatic countries, hoping that all parties will participate in the state funeral activities of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Considering the important domestic and international influence of Shinzo Abe's lifetime, the number of people attending the funeral may exceed the expectations of the Japanese government, so Japan is actively coordinating and hopes to set the maximum number of people attending the funeral to be around 6,400.
cited media reports from all sides that US Vice President Harris and former President Obama are basically confirmed to attend, and Indian Prime Minister Modi intends to attend. As for the former French President Macron , who had been considering attending, it temporarily announced that it planned to give up its trip to Japan due to "internal affairs schedule" and sent former presidential representatives to attend. As for whether it is Sarkozy or Hollande , further confirmation from the French side is still needed.
Macron's temporary change of mind is not surprising. First of all, the number of confirmed cases of the new crown epidemic in Japan and the poor security situation are likely to threaten Macron's safety. Secondly, the high inflation rate in China, the spread of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and other series of tests are urgently needed to be resolved by Macron. He traveled thousands of miles to Japan to "say goodbye" Abe , which seems not so necessary.
If Macron is "with the will but not the strength", then Putin has no intention of attending Abe's funeral at all. Earlier, Russian President's Press Secretary Peskov said that Putin did not attend Abe's state funeral and that Russia did not consider sending officials to Abe's state funeral. Logically speaking, Putin and Abe have many years of experience in dealing with each other. Even if they are not "old friends" and are still "old acquaintances", Putin's attitude is so decisive. It is obvious that he does not want to challenge Shinzo Abe, but is dissatisfied with the Japanese side's will to follow the United States and Europe during the conflict between Russia and Ukraine to brainlessly punish Russia. In addition, the territorial dispute between Japan and Russia will not give Japan a good face.
On the contrary, if Putin chooses to attend Abe's state funeral this time, it is equivalent to declaring to the domestic and internationally that Russia is no longer able to cope with the critical situation after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, and hopes to "improve relations" with Western countries.
So after seeing the different attitudes of all parties towards attending Abe's state funeral, will China choose to attend? Although the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not yet made a clear response to this issue, from the current situation in Sino-Japanese relations, it is likely that like Russia, it will not attend Abe's state funeral. The reasons are nothing more than three points:
1. During his administration, Abe's "contributions" to Sino-Japanese relations were basically negative. The comfort women issue, the Diaoyu Islands issue, the Taiwan Strait issue, etc. are all issues used by Shinzo Abe, who is from the right, to attack China. China-Japan relations have fallen into today's historic trough, and Abe himself "makes indestructible".
2. After he stepped down, Shinzo Abe did not stop hyping up on issues involving China. He visited the Yasukuni Shrine and clamored that "What things happen to Taiwan is equivalent to what things happen to Japan", and even wanted to go to Taiwan to sweep Lee Teng-hui's grave, completely exposing his militarist veil.
3. In addition to inviting major diplomatic relations, the Japanese side even included the Taiwan authorities on the list of invited guests, placing the "diplomatic relations" on the same position as our country's Taiwan region, and nakedly provoking the "one China red line". September 29 after Abe's funeral was exactly the 250th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan. If Japan ignores the influence, don't blame China for refusing to attend.
Then again, if Shinzo Abe thinks of the Japanese government treating his state funeral as a political transaction, I don’t know what he feels in his heart.
