12/12/19 11:51:36.39 mLRX2gOUP BE:861088526-2BP(1000)
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Japan faces up to China's long shadowBy Rupert Wingfield-Hayes
BBC News, Tokyo
Some Chinese commentators are suggesting that Beijing is actually quite happy that the Liberal Democrats (LDP) are back in power in Tokyo.
The argument goes something like this - dealing with Shinzo Abe will be much easier than the erratic and chaotic Democratic Party of Japan.
The LDP and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are two old parties who know and understand each other. It was, after all, an LDP Prime Minister, Kakuei Tanaka, who opened relations with Beijing in 1972.
But this region has changed enormously since the 1970s. Then, Japan was Asia's economic powerhouse; China was still dirt-poor and mired in the chaos of the Cultural Revolution.
Today, Japan is a declining power that, two years ago, lost its position as number one in Asia to China for the first time in more than a century.
Japanese people are not enjoying this new reality, and they are becoming increasingly nervous about Beijing's growing power and assertiveness.
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Mr Miyake says we should not take such rhetoric too seriously.
"Shinzo Abe is a pragmatic and realistic politician," he said.
"He has been in campaign mode over the last few months. Now he is in governing mode. I don't think you will hear the campaign rhetoric being repeated."
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