China’s Global Times state propaganda outlet described former Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo on Friday as having a “bad reputation” and a career littered with “wrongdoings” just hours after the Japanese government announced his death.
Police said a man identified as 41-year-old Yamagami Tetsuya fatally shot Abe during a campaign event on Friday morning in Nara, southern Japan, using what they have described at press time as an apparent homemade firearm. Abe was delivering a speech in support of legislative candidates on the ballot in regional elections to be held this weekend when Yamagami reportedly approached him from behind and attacked. Eyewitnesses say Abe continued to speak after the first shot, but fell over after being hit a second time and did not recover:
Abe was Japan’s longest-serving prime minister and stepped down in 2020 as a result of health issues. His conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) continues to run the country; current Prime Minister Kishida Fumio was Abe’s foreign minister.
Abe’s tenure was marked by a firm foreign policy against communist and leftist threats, a warm embrace of the United States and President Donald Trump in particular, and a call for Japan to enhance its defense forces. Japan’s post-World War II Constitution bans it from having a formal military. Abe had long campaigned for an amendment to allow Japan to have more protection than its Self-Defense Forces (SDF).
Shortly before his death, Abe began to return to prominence, championing the cause of a free and peaceful Taiwan and urging the United States to cement a concrete relationship with Taiwan that would deter China from invading it.
The Communist Party of China initially reacted to the news of the attack on Abe by expressing “shock.” At the time of the Foreign Ministry’s daily press briefing, Japanese authorities had not yet confirmed Abe’s death.
We are following the updates and hope that former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will be out of danger and recover soon. We would like to extend sympathies to his family,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at the time.
In a Japanese-language statement on Twitter – which Chinese citizens cannot legally use – Chinese government spokeswoman Hua Chunying later expressed condolences.
“I am surprised to hear that former Prime Minister Abe has passed away. We pray for his soul and condolences to his bereaved family for their contributions to the improvement and development of Sino-Japanese relations,” Hua wrote:
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