Will Abe do a Nixon?

Will he or won’t he do a Nixon, that’s the question!

Japan’s newly appointed prime minister Shinzo Abe arrived in Beijing to a courteous welcome by president Hu, NPC chairman Wu and premier Wen. It is a highly symbolic visit, the first summit meeting between the leaders of the two countries since October 2001. The Chinese government turned its back on Abe’s predecessor Junichiro Koizumi because he stubbornly kept on visiting the Yasukuni Shrine. Abe is even more right-wing than Koizumi, so where’s the logic?

“Two years from now, we might look back on this and say ‘Look, he did a Nixon’”, the Dutch China-guru Willem van Kemenade told the Associated Press. Right-winger Nixon made a bold move by visiting Chairman Mao in Beijing in 1972 and paved the way for the restoration of relations between the U.S. and China.

Relations between China and Japan have deteriorated to rock bottom. Will Abe succeed in turning the tide and make his visit not only symbolic but also historic? We’ll know in two years time.

Willem must have been flattered by being called a sinologist in the AP dispatch. He surely knows a Chinese swear word or two. Does that make one a sinologist? Never mind, Willem definitely has a way to coin an expression: “Did you do a Nixon today?”.