2024-02-24 15:01:15
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A memoir by former Japanese Ambassador to China Hideo Tarumi, published in February in the Japanese monthly Bungeishunchu. /Literature and Culture, RFA
Former Ambassador Hideo Tarumi, who served as Japan’s ambassador to China for three years from 2020 to the end of last year, published a memoir about his time in office in the Japanese monthly magazine Bungeishunchu as soon as he returned to Korea. He directly criticized the changes in China since President Xi Jinping came to power, as well as the detention, wiretapping, and intimidation of Japanese diplomats.
He is the representative ‘Chinese expert’ of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He studied at Nanjing University, is fluent in Chinese, and has many connections in China. After taking office as second secretary at the Japanese Embassy in China in June 1989, immediately after the Tiananmen Square incident, I worked in China four times for about 10 years. He also has experience working in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
He said of President Xi, “After coming to power, he changed into a completely different person.” President Xi visited Japan in 2009 when he was vice president and met with Emperor Akihito. Former Ambassador Tarumi was in charge of guiding the Chinese and Mongolian Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the time, and it is said that President Xi had to wait for a long time as there were 70 people to meet. Despite this, he did not show any signs of dissatisfaction or irritation, giving the impression of a gentle and humble person.
◇“The legitimacy of the Communist Party’s ruling is shaken.”
Former Ambassador Tarumi accompanied President Toshihiro Nikai, General Secretary of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, and paid a courtesy visit to President Xi in 2015, after President Xi came to power. It is said that the atmosphere was completely different back then. It is said that it was difficult to even get close because there were security guards camped around. He wrote, “Vigilance and security were much tighter than during the time of President Hu Jintao.”
Immediately after President Xi came to power, China was facing a serious problem of corruption following 30 years of high growth, and unemployment was also high due to economic difficulties. It is said that questions have been raised among the public about the legitimacy of the Communist Party’s rule. The question was asked, ‘Should we allow the Communist Party to continue to rule even in this situation?’
Former Ambassador Darumi assessed that President Xi was at a crossroads between continuing Deng Xiaoping’s high-growth path or choosing the Mao Zedong-style route of becoming a strong nation, and Xi chose the latter. He chose to overcome the crisis of legitimacy in power by concentrating power in the style of Mao.
The seven standing committee members who make up the Standing Committee, the highest leadership of the Communist Party, had the same authority as Chairman Hu, the Party General Secretary, during the time of President Hu Jintao, but after Xi Jinping came to power, their status fell to that of the General Secretary’s subordinates. Standing committee members report their work to President Xi, the Party’s general secretary, at the end of each year, and are said to be reviewed by the general secretary’s office when using private trains or private planes.
Xi Jinping, then Chinese Vice President, is shaking hands with Emperor Akihito of Japan during his visit to Japan in December 2009. /Chinese government network
◇“Sacrifice the economy for national security”
It is said that diplomats in Beijing cannot understand why policies focused on national security, such as the Anti-Espionage Act, are being implemented in a difficult situation for the Chinese economy. When meeting ambassadors from Western countries, including the United States, they said, “President Xi seems to think that he can sacrifice the economy for national security. It is said that many responses were, “It is absolutely difficult to understand.”
Former Ambassador Darumi ordered that we must prepare for the post-Xi Jinping era as President Xi is over 70 years old. It is unclear whether China’s political situation will remain stable after President Xi’s death, but as a neighboring country, we must prepare in advance measures to respond to policy changes.
He is known as ‘the person China fears most’ because of his outspoken remarks against the Chinese side, and as a result, he is said to have suffered from surveillance by the Chinese authorities while serving as ambassador to China. It is said that they monitored former Ambassador Tarumi’s every move through shadowing and wiretapping, and even prevented him from inviting Chinese people he knew to events hosted by the Japanese Embassy.
Former Ambassador Hideo Tarumi appeared on Japanese TV when he was appointed as Japan’s ambassador to China in October 2020. /NHK
◇Monitoring your every move through tailing and wiretapping
It is said that a wiretapping device was installed in a Japanese restaurant in Beijing that Japanese diplomats frequent. Former Ambassador Darumi is said to have avoided mentioning sensitive political issues when meeting and eating with Japanese reporters in Beijing for fear of wiretapping.
In February 2022, China’s Ministry of State Security (equivalent to the National Intelligence Service) arrested Dong Yuyu, deputy director of the editorial department of the Communist Party’s newspaper Guangming Daily, at the Xinqiao Hotel in Beijing, and reportedly also arrested and detained a Japanese diplomat who had lunch with him at the time. Ambassador Tarumi demanded his immediate release, saying it was a “violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” but the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded, “As he engaged in activities unbecoming of his status as a diplomat, the relevant agencies will conduct an investigation based on the law.” They say they did it. It is said that he was released only after ambassadors from 13 countries joined forces to protest to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In December 2021, when former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, “Taiwan’s state of emergency is also Japan’s emergency,” in a video speech at a forum hosted by the Taiwan Institute for National Policy Studies, he was reportedly summoned to China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the evening. When he said he couldn’t go, he threatened to “boycott all future requests for meetings with Ambassador Darumi,” so he had no choice but to visit the Ministry of Foreign Affairs late in the evening.
Hua Chunying, a former spokesperson and one of the best diplomats of all time, met former Ambassador Darumi and was said to have read out a line of protest against former Prime Minister Abe’s remarks for 30 minutes. It is said that a war of words broke out when former Ambassador Darumi retorted, “When we request a meeting, we keep putting off the schedule, but when the Chinese side calls us to ‘come right away’ when we need it, is this polite to you?”
A memoir of former Ambassador Hideo Tarumi published in the online edition of Bungeishunchu. The war of words with Chinese Foreign Minister Hua Chunying (Assistant Secretary) was covered in detail. /Literary Spring and Autumn Festival
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