As World Mourns Shinzo Abe’s Assassination, Chinese Social Media Erupts into Celebrations

Shinzo Abe has been assassinated. A towering personality who redefined the Asia-Pacific as the “Indo-Pacific” was shot during a campaign address ahead of the elections to the upper house of Japan’s parliament. Shinzo Abe was a statesman par excellence, and no less than a legend in the world of geopolitics. Today, China is facing challenges in the Indo-Pacific, and is not being allowed a free run across the region thanks to the concerted efforts of Shinzo Abe, who became the longest-serving Prime Minister of Japan.

Here’s some context. Shinzo Abe, during his tenure as Prime Minister, strengthened the Japanese military and diluted the infamous Article 9 of Japan’s constitution by allowing the overseas deployment of troops to aid the country’s allies. He also strengthened Japanese assets, military infrastructure and troop presence in the Okinawa prefecture, of which the disputed Senkaku islands – which China stakes claim on – are a part. In recent times, he emerged as a strong advocate for the freedom of Taiwan, saying that any threat to Taiwan must be treated as a threat to Japan.

As a proud nationalist who worked tirelessly to make Japan an activist nation rather than a pacifist one, Shinzo Abe singlehandedly built the democratic world’s policy for the Indo Pacific, coining the phrase “Free and Open Indo Pacific”, which has today become a thorn in the eyes of China.

Therefore, it was natural for the Chinese Communist Party to revel in a sense of glee at any pain caused to Shinzo Abe. However, supporters of the Chinese regime seem to have launched an all-out campaign not just against now-deceased Shinzo Abe, but also against anybody condoling his demise, condemning the brutal attack on him or merely expressing shock over all that has happened.

On Twitter, Indians are being bombarded with tweets that appear to be of Chinese origin, and are written in Mandarin. These tweets are seen mocking Shinzo Abe, celebrating the attack on him and his subsequent demise, apart from also engaging in a wolf-warrior style of confrontation. While Chinese diplomats seem to have paused wolf-warrior diplomacy, ordinary Chinese social media users are enthusiastically filling in. Check out responses to this tweet of mine to see how Chinese users have spread all over the place.

The Weibo Story

On Weibo, which is the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, there was no stopping the Chinese from celebrating Shinzo Abe being shot and subsequently him succumbing to the fatal injuries. On Weibo, the hashtag “Abe Shows No Vital Signs” received over a billion views. Chinese users began referring to July 8 as a historic day en masse, almost as if they were celebrating the death of an enemy.

Users’ comments ranged from them congratulating each other, to even suggesting that they eat an extra bowl of rice in celebration. Others asked who Abe’s attacker was, and how they could donate money to him. Meanwhile, some users even began drawing parallels between the assassination of Shinzo Abe and that of former US President John F Kennedy.

Shinzo Abe was a great friend of Taiwan, and called on for the island nation to be allowed entry into global organisations and multilateral forums. That really made the Chinese hate the man. According to WhatsOnWeibo, some of the comments called the shooter a ‘hero’, saying he would not just also go into Japanese history, but would be remembered in Chinese history books too.

It is important to point that Shinzo Abe was merely what Chinese nationalists were projecting their hate on. The root cause of all their hatred is a memory of Japanese atrocities over Chinese people during the Great Wars in the 20^th century. Definitely, for the stooges of the Chinese regime and for its most avid supporters, Shinzo Abe was a man whose sight could not be stood. However, hatred for anything Japanese has come to form an instinctive part of life for Chinese Communists aligned with the CCP.

Across the world, China is earning a bad name for allowing such comments to be made on a social media platform whose entire control rests with the Communist regime. In more ways than one, the free pass given to toxic Chinese commentators by the CCP is being seen as a glowing validation of their views, and that should disturb the world a lot.

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