TAIPEI (Reuters) – Japan and the United States could not stand by if China attacked Taiwan and Beijing needs to understand this, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Wednesday.
“A Taiwan emergency is a Japanese emergency, and therefore an emergency for the Japan-U.S. alliance. People in Beijing, President Xi in particular, should never have a misunderstanding in recognising this,” he said in a virtual speech to a think tank in Taipei.
Abe, who stepped down as prime minister last year, is head of the largest faction of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and remains influential within the party.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Tom Hogue)
