Taro Aso, vice president of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, voiced a warning Wednesday about China's increased military pressure on Taiwan, saying in his speech in Washington that there should be more peaceful communication between Beijing and Taipei.
Aso, a former Japanese prime minister, said, "China's choice of a hasty military unification of Taiwan will only disrupt the international order for its own convenience" and "this must not be tolerated," when he spoke at an event organized by the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, a U.S. think tank.
Ahead of Taiwan's presidential election on Saturday, Aso said Japan and the United States should also continue to seek dialogue with China, touching on the need to work closely together in persuading the Asian power to exercise restraint.
Aso said the world is now witnessing "the threat of authoritarian states such as Russia, China and North Korea" and, given such circumstances, the broad coordination between Japan and the United States based on their decades-old alliance is becoming "more and more important."
While underscoring the need for exchanges with countries like China, he said, "Of course, to avoid misunderstanding, this is not to deny the importance of realism in international politics. It means that we should develop a deterrent force, develop an appropriate economic and security policy."
Among other topics, he expressed hope that the United States will return to a trans-Pacific multilateral free trade pact.
Although the United States withdrew from the pact, originally called the Trans-Pacific Partnership, under President Joe Biden's predecessor Donald Trump in 2017, Aso noted the possibility of South Korea becoming part of the trade bloc in the future.
If South Korea joins the accord, which was subsequently renamed the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, he said the security and economic cooperation among the three countries would deepen, and regional stability and prosperity would be further strengthened.
Aso delivered the speech in his capacity as chairman of a Japanese think tank, the Nakasone Peace Institute.
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