Introduction: continuing tensions in East Asia
China and Japan are separated by a narrow strip of water, which has served as both a battlefield and a market throughout its history of neighborly relations, going through an endless cycle of ups and downs.
The Sino-Japanese relationship has influenced the East Asian politics more than any other factor, and is now gaining global importance in light of the recent shift of power from the West to the Asian continent.
Without a doubt, China and Japan They share a cultural heritage, which has created a special bond between them but at the same time has given rise to misunderstandings and threats that are taken with the ferocity of a family dispute.
Chinese Empire and Culture
The Chinese Empire, which prided itself on being established in the third century BC and perceived itself as the Center Kingdom, maintained a detailed historical record in which it first mentioned Japan in the first century AD.
Chinese culture influenced Japan in profound and lasting ways, exporting the writing system, chopsticks and cooking techniques, clothing, musical instruments, traditional medicine, Buddhist teachings, and even bureaucracy.
XNUMXth century
However, it was not until 6th century that were formally established diplomatic and commercial relations between the two countries.
And soon followed first battle for control of certain islands.
After suffering a defeat, Japan was temporarily isolated until trade intensified again.
In the 1590s Japan invaded Korea and the Chinese emperor did not hesitate to help his vassal.
However, the war depleted imperial resources in ways that contributed to the Manchurian conquest.
In 1633 the Tokugawa shogunate decided to cut all ties with the outside world, limiting trade with China for the next two centuries.
| Official name | People's Republic of China | Japan |
| Location | 1.403.000.000 | 126.500.000 |
| Area | 9.500.000 km2 | 377.000 km2 |
| Density | 146 / km2 | 335 / km2 |
| Government | Socialist unitary republic | parliamentary monarchy |
| BIOPARC | 3 AC | 7 AD |
| Last constitution | 1982 | 1947 |
| Head of state | Xi Jinping | Emperor Naruhito |
| head of government | Li Keqiang | Yoshihide Suga |
| GDP (nominal) | $14.000 trillion ($10.153 per capita) | $5.000 trillion ($40.846 per capita) |
| GDP (PPP) | $27.000 trillion ($19.559 per capita) | $5.000 trillion ($44.227 per capita) |
| HDI | 0,76 (high) | 0,91 (very high) |
Tension over the Leadership of the Region
Therefore, despite being business partners, Tension has always been the defining characteristic of the relationship between China and Japan, since both fight for leadership of the region.
While the idealistic West has reached a consensus that China and Japan will achieve peace through factors such as trade, identity, socialization and domestic politics, neorealist perspective of International Relations requires recognizing that between Beijing and Tokyo there is a dynamic spiral of power transition and security dilemma.
As for most controversial topics, the Chinese Foreign Ministry identified history, Taiwan, Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands (there is not even consensus on the name), war reparations, Japan-US security cooperation, and Japanese chemical weapons, these can now be added from the Japanese point of view human rights and high-tech weapons.
However, the animosity goes beyond the political elite, as it is deeply rooted in the societies that mutually support each other. they perceive as arrogant and violent, with a notable deterioration since 2006.
From 1850 to 1950: the century of war
In the 1850s Japan was forced to abandon its isolationism by Commodore Perry of the US Navy.
The country quickly realized that it needed to modernize to avoid the humiliation suffered by China in the two Opium Wars against the West.
The structural reforms of the Meiji Restoration resulted in rapid modernization, industrialization and militarization, following the Western imperialist model.
China, which was significantly impoverished at the time, was seen as a closed and backward civilization, unable to defend itself.
Therefore, the model of sovereign equality established by the Peace of Westphalia arrived in East Asia just in time to give the final push to the disappearance of Sinocentric hierarchical order.
1870 - 1900
In the 1870s Japan and China clashed over control of the Ryukyu Islands, political influence over Korea, and various trade issues. Japan massacred China, achieving an easy victory in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95, which ended with the Treaty of Shimonoseki in which China recognized the independence of Korea and ceded several islands to Japan, including Formosa (former name of the island of Taiwan).
Additionally, China had to pay huge compensation, open its ports to international trade, and allow Japanese factories on the mainland.
In 1900, Japanese troops participated in the Boxer Uprising and China was again forced to pay compensation.
Big war
Japan took advantage of the Big war to take over German possessions.
The newly established Chinese republic was politically unstable and militarily weak.
Hoping to create postwar alliances against Japanese expansionism, China declared war on Germany in 1917 on a technicality only to attend the peace conference.
However, the Japanese ultimatum of the Twenty-One Demands of 1915 was confirmed at the conference and this humiliation fueled Chinese nationalism and culminated in the May Fourth Movement.
Japanese Refusal to Apologize to China
Civil war broke out in 1927 and further weakened China.
Since 1931, incidents between Chinese and Japanese troops were constant and exerted constant pressure on China, forcing it to sign several agreements in favor of Japan.
The year 1937 marked the official beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War and the famous Battle of Shanghai that lasted months.
Japan continued to advance south and west, committing numerous war crimes, including the rape of nanking.
Japan's refusal to apologize for these cruelties has left a lasting scar on the collective memory of the Chinese people.
Support for China and World War II
Since 1938 China began to use guerrilla tactics and had the support of the United States, Great Britain and the Netherlands.
Hence, Japan saw its supplies restricted and sought to avoid an all-out war with Russia, but it brought the United States into conflict. Second World War through the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Despite fighting on several fronts, Japan only accepted surrender after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
From 1950 to 2006: between warming and freezing
After the founding of the People's Republic of China in October 1949, some type of cooperation with Japan began to emerge.
Despite increased contacts, hostility persisted as China perceived US forces in Japan as a direct threat to its survival.
In response, the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance of 1950 incorporated a provision on mutual protection in the event of Japanese aggression.
In consecuense, The United States prevented Japan from establishing closer relations with China as part of its efforts to contain the communist bloc..
This thwarted Japan's intentions to revive its war-ravaged economy and confined the regional security dilemma to the global Cold War.
Japan Does Not Recognize the People's Republic of China
The ROC government had been administering the island of Taiwan since the Japanese surrender in 1945 and formally moved there in 1949.
However, no formal transfer of territorial sovereignty was made in the 1952 Treaty of Taipei.
In any case, the establishment of relations with Taiwan posed a clear problem for Mao Zedong's People's Republic of China.
Given that At that time Japan recognized the Republic of China and not the People's Republic of China, the Kuomintang government did not accept Japanese reparations.
Propaganda attacks on Japan and collapsed ties
Beijing began to influence Japan informally through NGOs such as the Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Relations, trade agreements such as the one in 1952, and citizen diplomacy, especially by contacting opposition political parties.
Failing to achieve its objectives, in 1958 China suspended its trade with Japan.
However, when the People's Republic of China severed relations with the USSR, it immediately sought to revitalize trade with Japan by signing a memorandum.
But in the face of protests from the ROC, Japan limited its exports, and China retaliated by degrading trade and intensifying propaganda against Japan as the puppet of the United States.
In the 1960s, as China entered the Cultural Revolution and Japan experienced its economic miracle, ties between the two plummeted.
The Chinese side was particularly concerned about the possible remilitarization of Japan in light of the reduced American presence.
Republic of China at the United Nations
Everything changed in 1971 when the People's Republic of China took the place of the Republic of China in the United Nations and Nixon visited Beijing (known as the “Nixon shock“, since it took everyone by surprise).
In 1972 the joint communique established diplomatic relations between Japan and China: Japan accepted the political status of Taiwan and China renounced its demand for war reparations.
1978 Treaty
In 1974 the two States began negotiations for a treaty of peace and friendship, but a year later they stalled.
Mao's death in 1976 led to Deng's economic reforms, which in turn encouraged Japanese investment.
However, in 1978 a dispute over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands interrupted the momentum.
Both sides acted with restraint and after Japan announced development aid for China a final agreement was reached.
El treaty of 1978 promised “relations of perpetual peace and friendship between the two countries on the basis of the principles of mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit and coexistence “peaceful.”
Golden age
This marked the call “Golden age” in relations between Japan and China, which lasted about a decade.
Common interests such as the Vietnamese withdrawal from Cambodia and condemnation of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan brought the two countries closer.
However, even this period was not free of controversy: in 1982 Japan caused controversy by revising history books about the war with China and in 1985 the prime minister visited the Yasukuni Shrine, which the Chinese say commemorates criminals. of the war.
Ice Age
Soon followed a “ice Age“, which can be explained with the chinese trend to adopt a tough foreign policy as soon as its economy flourishes and external relations are favorable.
Warming relations with the USSR removed incentives to maintain friendly relations with Japan.
Despite the policy of Opening Up and Reform, China still had high trade deficits with Japan and personal contacts between leaders decreased, triggering the rise of nationalism.
It all came to light with the Tiananmen crackdown in 1989. Japan imposed sanctions on China as did the West, but was careful not to isolate it to avoid a retreat from reforms and therefore soon resumed its development aid.
Emergence of the China Threat Theory
In 1995, Chinese nuclear tests and military exercises reinforced the perception of the Chinese threat throughout the region, which the People's Republic sought to mitigate by engaging with multilateral frameworks such as ASEAN.
Japanese economic power began to decline in the early 90s and never recovered from the 1997 bubble, while China was unaffected by the crisis and in 2001 joined the World Trade Organization.
Furthermore, the fall of the old Japanese political regime increased nationalism and called for strengthening defense and traditional values.
Arose la theory of the “China threat” which argued that Japanese aid and trade had expanded Chinese influence in the region against Japan's interests.
2004 - 2005
The term 2004-2005 saw an alarming deterioration: Chinese fans bullied the Japanese soccer team during the Asian Cup and Chinese submarines breached Japan's Exclusive Economic Zone, and in response, China was declared a security threat to the Japanese Defense Program.
In 2005, the US and Japan issued a joint statement on Taiwan that angered China to the point of passing the Anti-Secession Law and holding anti-Japanese demonstrations.
The campaign against a possible Japanese seat on the UN Security Council gathered 22 million signatures.
2001 - 2006
In the period 2001-2006 Prime Minister Kouzimi was the main cause of tensions with his repeated visits to Yasukuni Shrine, and by the end of his tenure China-Japan relations were at their lowest point since normalization due to spiraling escalation.
Once the prime minister changed, China decided to lower tensions.
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From 2006 onwards: assertiveness and pragmatism
Relations between China and Japan improved considerably after the inauguration of Shinzo Abe, whose pro-China policy was made clear during his visit to Beijing in 1999. Abe and Hu agreed to build a “mutually beneficial relationship based on common strategic interests,” including the areas of energy, environment and climate change cooperation, and personnel exchanges .
First Trilateral Summit
The first trilateral summit between China, Japan and South Korea was held in 2008 as an extension of the ASEAN+3 framework, and a secretariat was established in Seoul in 2011.
It is worth mentioning that China and Japan are part of only one regional international organization: the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD).
This was created in 2002 to integrate the different regional organizations such as ASEAN, SCO and SAARC.
At a more informal level, the East Asia Summit was launched in 2005 and the Asia Council in 2016, but integration efforts in the region lag behind other continents.
Qualitative Change in Chinese Policy
However, 2008 marked a qualitative change in Chinese politics, since it became more assertive and abandoned prudence, and therefore, bilateral relations with Japan deteriorated.
Chinese economic power was steadily rising while the United States was sliding downward as a result of the 2008 financial crisis, and in 2010 China overtook Japan as the second-largest economy.
But capabilities aside, China's interests also changed: as its military strength grew, the Asian giant began to challenge the Japanese who were “trying to disrupt the status quo previously stable” in the East China Sea.
Unsurprisingly, a reluctant Japan refused to be a passive witness.
Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands (2010)
The quintessential example is the 2010 episode around the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands.
The collision of two ships triggered a series of cancellations of exchanges and meetings, as well as official statements going so far as to call each other “hysterical” or “absurd.”
Protests broke out on both sides of the sea and a ten-minute meeting between prime ministers at the East Asia Summit failed to resolve the issue.
Two years later, a Japanese businessman bought some islands (also in dispute) and the government decided to nationalize them to avoid further destabilizing relations with China, but this backfired as Beijing saw it as a calculated insult.
Between late 2012 and early 2013, Japan intercepted several Chinese planes and China reacted by publishing a white paper on the Japanese “causing trouble.”
Barack Obama organized a two-day informal meeting with the two Asian leaders, but they did not follow his appeal for de-escalation.
Japan's Defense Ministry took a tougher stance and China declared an air defense identification zone over the East China Sea, with a 50% overlap with the Japanese.
Abe then directly provoked China by visiting the Yasukuni Shrine and China criticized him for honoring “Asian Nazis.”
Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands – Covered by the Mutual Security Treaty
But things didn't stop there. In 2014, the Abe government announced the revocation of the commitment to “escape from nuclear energy” and lifted the ban on military exports imposed in 1967.
During Obama's trip to Asia he declared that Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands were covered by the Mutual Security Treaty.
Furthermore, Japan pledged to support ASEAN members, thus expressing its intention to continue challenging China.
Consequently, the People's Republic of China used Angela Merkel's visit to criticize Japan for wartime aggression.
And then Japan's defense reports explicitly identified China as a security threat.
Rapprochement between both countries
However, the personal relationship between Abe and Xi, who assumed leadership in November 2012, managed to overcome the difficulties after the meeting in 2014.
La Trump trade war against China and trade disputes with Japan brought the two countries closer together, and despite Trump's incendiary rhetoric, America's dwindling presence in the region shows little interest in escalating the conflict.
To the favorable factors can be added the tensions created by North Korea's nuclear program. To alleviate unnecessary security uncertainty in the region, Japanese and Chinese leaders they calculated that the dispute it was too expensive for them.
Abe endorsed the Belt and Road Initiative (despite concerns about its geopolitical implications) as a concrete step to improve the Sino-Japanese relationship, as Xi considers it his signature policy.
Trump's withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership left Japan without any backup plan.
But even this warmer period experiences occasional friction, such as Japan's involvement in condemning China's treatment of Uyghurs by 22 states in 2019 and the October 2020 statement on Hong Kong by 39 countries.
COVID-19
The COVID-19 outbreak saw an unprecedented show of solidarity between China and Japan with the exchange of donations, masks, tests, etc. but also popular support on social networks. 2020 also brought Abe's unexpected resignation, and His successor, Yoshihide Suga, is expected to take a tougher stance toward China..
In its first months it hosted a meeting of the “Quad” (USA, Japan, India, Australia) that Beijing calls “mini-NATO” that contains China.
He then visited Vietnam and Indonesia offering support in the disputed East China Sea, as well as supply chain diversification to reduce dependence on China.
In addition, Japan signed a security agreement with Australia, which has recently been embroiled in numerous disputes with China.
However, during his first Diet speech, Suga pledged to continue the stable relationship with China and expressed a soft stance that belied the initial impression of opposition.
Nationalism in China
Nationalism has been on the rise in China for the past decade, but has been exacerbated by widespread anti-Chinese sentiment caused by the coronavirus.
At the ceremony celebrating the 70th anniversary of the “US-Korean War of Resistance to Aggression,” Xi Jinping unequivocally showed that China was not afraid of the US and would continue to defend its interests.
Awaiting the uncertain transition to a Biden White House, Japan and China have opted for regional cooperation, namely the Regional Comprehensive Economic Association signed in mid-November.
The agreement is of utmost importance because it covers a third of the world economy, making it the largest trading bloc, but it is also the only multilateral trade pact signed by China.
On the other hand, On November 25, the Chinese Foreign Minister traveled to Japan to reaffirm commercial and health cooperation but left the solution to the territorial dispute pending.
Conclusion: balance of (great) power
The historical review of China-Japan relations has highlighted the continued proclamation of a “new era” in accordance with the changes in the capabilities and interests of these countries.
Although Beijing has time and again assured the world that its “peaceful rise” is only a return to the position that China has always deserved due to its population and size, this has inevitably sparked concerns and even fear among the international community.
Paradoxically, China's largest trading partners are also the ones that fear it the most.
Control the “China Threat”
Such anxiety is especially pronounced in Japan: a declining power forced to give way to its long-standing rival.
Japan and China are caught in the security dilemma as they try to avoid the Thucydides trap.
The newly elected prime minister Suga has no choice but to continue the dualist policy of engaging and balancing China, through a mix of deterrence and greater response capacity with allies on the one hand and strategic dialogue with China on the other.
As the United States slides back into isolationism, the Land of the Rising Sun has the impossible task of controlling the “China threat,” which is too big for any country to face alone.
“Catastrophe comparable to the First World War”
A deterioration in Sino-Japanese relations would be detrimental to the stability of the entire Asian region.
An even more disturbing scenario is the dynamics of the alliance security dilemma, which seems even more plausible in recent months as public debate has begun to talk about a Second Cold War.
A great power peace would bring much-needed trade and development, as well as cooperation on global issues such as health and climate change (both China and Japan recently pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050). But the world is moving in the opposite direction: as he said Kissinger in November (key player in China's opening to the world) “Unless some basis for cooperative action is found, the world will slide into a catastrophe comparable to the First World War.”
Endless Circle of Competition and Cooperation
Although the current state of China-Japan relations offers a hopeful starting point, is far from being a stable and lasting solution to the problems that have been going on for 15 centuries.
Their relationships are influenced by both domestic and international factors, and the main obstacles remain historical issues and nationalism, since in Confucian countries the importance of “face” is paramount.
Therefore, at least for the foreseeable future, China and Japan will remain in an endless circle of competition and cooperation, confrontation and caution, conflict and trade.
Graduated in International Relations and Protocol, Event Management and Corporate Communication. I am passionate about technology and cultures, which is why I did my final degree research on the cultural diplomacy of the European Union and China. I identify myself as a citizen of the world, but also a convinced Europeanist.
