Among other acts, in 2010 Ma snubbed then former prime minister Abe during his visit to Taipei by failing to provide official transportation, as would normally have been the case-Abe took a cab-and urged Japan to "learn from history," a phrase frequently used by Chinese authorities to refer to insufficient apologies for the behavior of Japanese troops during World War II. In the case of Taiwan, this prudence was shown in the November 2018 local elections, when a referendum item calling for a change in the name Chinese Taipei, under which the island's athletes are permitted to compete in the Olympics, failed to pass.5 Under pressure from China, the International Olympic Committee had just before the election warned that the athletes would not be allowed to participate at all under the name Taiwan.6 Outward appearances of a steady state notwithstanding, destabilizing factors lurk in PRC-Japan-Taiwan relations. ...the Japanese government was sufficiently nettled by Taiwan voters' refusal to lift the country's ban on food imports from five Japanese prefectures near the 2011 nuclear meltdown that Foreign Minister Taro Kono suggested that Japan might no longer be willing to support Taiwan's bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.7 The Japanese government has become increasingly uncomfortable with the PRC's expansionist activities in the South China Sea, through which a large proportion of Japanese oil and gas imports pass, while Beijing counters that Japan has no right to operate outside its own geographic area. 2"Press Conference by the Chief Cabinet Secretary" Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet, May 20, 2016 u http://japan.kantei.go.jp/tyoukanpress/201605/20_p.html. Described by Xi as "a magic weapon for the victory of the party's cause" united front tactics comprise a coordinated series of efforts, both legal and illegal, to influence other countries' views in support of China's policies. 9 "Tsai and the DPP Get Shellacked" Japan Times, November 26, 2018 u https://www.japantimes. co.jp/opinion/2018/11/26/editorials/tsai-dpp-get-shellacked/#.W_7xAuJOlc8.