Abe's dastardly antics backfired at Davos

As the four-day annual jamboree of ideas and opinions wound down in Davos, Switzerland on Saturday, the general verdict on the diplomatic offensive of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was it had failed.

Abe attended the event seeking to convince global opinion leaders that he had done nothing wrong in visiting the Yasukuni Shrine where 14 Class-A war criminals are enshrined and tried to sell them his vision of a Chinese bogeyman.

Without the necessity of having any others among more than 2,500 World Economic Forum participants comment, many of the Japanese journalists reporting on the Davos meeting admitted their prime minister's diplomatic grandstanding had backfired. Even Japan's ally the United States has expressed "disappointment" at Abe's action, a surefire signal that Abe crossed the line of what is acceptable.

Abe engaged journalists and opinion leaders on two occasions in Davos. One was an on-the-record meeting with journalists from selected news organizations and the other was his speech on "Abenomics" and subsequent dialogue with the forum founder Klaus Schwab.

In the first instance, the Japanese prime minister reiterated the comparison that had already been doing the rounds in foreign policy circles that tensions between China and Japan are similar to the situation between Britain and Germany in the build-up to World War I. He tried to depict a China threat, choosing to hide his provocations in the past year.

In the second instance, while outlining his measures to help Japan emerge from its long-standing economic slowdown, he again criticized China for its military spending, which in fact lags far behind others in scale. When Schwab asked about the tensions between Japan and its two neighbors China and South Korea, Abe explained that his visit to the shrine was not meant to hurt people in the two countries.

Of course, Abe did exactly the opposite of what he said.

On Friday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, the former Chinese ambassador to Japan, in a dialogue with professor Joseph Nye of Harvard University, made it clear who is the troublemaker and warmonger. With solid facts and indignation, Wang recalled the true history: It was Japan that attacked China in 1894, it was Japan that forcefully annexed the Korean Peninsula in 1910, it was Japan that launched its aggression against China in 1937, it was Japan that launched the Pacific War in 1941, and it was Japan that left a trail of suffering in its wake until its defeat in 1945.

A country's economic success largely depends on peaceful external surroundings, in addition to domestic consensus. China's remarkable rise over the past 30-plus years has proved this.

Abe would find it hard to achieve his economic goals if he continues to tarnish Japan's global image, and if he goes even further, as it seems he intends to, then investors and travelers are likely to pose a big question mark about the Japanese government's sincerity in upholding global peace by shunning the country.

Abe has misused his chance in Davos. Instead of trying to explain away his visit to the shrine, he should first have apologized for the hurt he caused the Chinese and Korean peoples and others in the region. Only by showing he understands the suffering his country's actions caused in the past and his actions are causing today will he be able to win the trust of the world.

When a Japanese colleague was asked if Abe was successfully getting his message cross, the journalist shook his head and said Abe's diplomacy was a failure.

The second day after his speech, a Japanese television anchor mentioned Abe's visit to the controversial shrine was not welcomed by the majority of ordinary Japanese.

It is expected that relations might be improved with the wisdom and increasing exchanges of ordinary people. However, it is clear that despite the willingness of the two peoples to better understand each other, untying the knot of tensions that Abe has tied will not be easy, and he will have to show how it can be undone.

The author is China Daily's chief correspondent in Brussels. fujing@chinadaily.com.cn