The Relationship between China and Japan after 1989

If we look closely to the complex dynamics between China and Japan, we always need to keep our focus on the main differences regarding our mind frames and their, as well as between China’s and Japan’s. Those two Nations have an history of rivalry that goes beyond the (short) period that I’m going to examine, back from the ancient times when Japan tried to invade China, or when the Mongolian army, under Kubilai Khan’s command, was stopped near Japan’s shores only thanks to the “divine wind” (Kamikaze). Anyway, there’s a deep Sino-centric contamination among all the pacific area, which is similar to the relationship that existed between the European States since the fall of the Roman Empire to the rise of the European Union: of course, while there are similarities and common guide lines, we can see more often a more typical shape that derives from local aspects as well as from local point of view. Thus we have a common scenario that, if we take a close look, reveals strong differences between the actors .

One of the main features upon I will focus is the excessively reductionist attitude (generally dividing the subject between black and white due to what Federico Chabod defines as a typical European attitude since: “…[l’Europa nasce dalla] contrapposizione tra l’Europa e ciò che Europa non è… [ossia] l’Asia, destinata a rimanere… termine di paragone… ) that, on the methodological ground, is common especially among American literature: by sticking to approaches that are extremely used in the Western world (such as Realism and Institutional Liberalism) we are not able to comprehend why SE Asia differs in so many ways from the typical evolution we’ve seen in Europe as well as in North America (i.e., why Japan, the second greatest power in the region, doesn’t challenge the United States? Why China, a former communist state and still a totalitarian one, has decided to push for a more integrated security approach and a common security agenda, giving away some corner stones of its former policy in order to create confidence among the other region’s states? If the US are to be considered the best choice as an ally, why Japan, considering its historical rivalries and miscomprehensions with China, has become PRC’s best trading partner? Why can’t be explain that “…in 1994 the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) successfully launched the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and a few years later ASEAN expanded its membership to include all ten Southeast Asian countries. For many analysts neither realism nor neo-realism helped to explain these emerging cooperative arrangements…” ?).

The period that I am going to analyze is limited to the lapse of time that goes from the beginning of the ‘90s to the present days: that is due to the (relatively) low bilateral activity we’ve seen during the Cold war, when the two Countries (Japan in primis) were under a super-power logic. I will, anyway, give a brief account of the historical background of those Nations starting from the end of the II World War.

Last but not least, as a part of the analysis, I will give a small account of the local dynamics involving China and Japan for political reasons or as a part of institutions such as ARF and the Six Party Talks and towards countries such as North Korea and Taiwan.