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There are unresolved issues in China-Japan relations. The most important of these are territorial and historical disputes. Countries have mutual claims on the territory of the Diaoyu Islands (Jap. Senkaku). In addition, China and Japan are constantly arguing about the results of World War II. Japan does not emphasize responsibility for the victims of aggression against the Asian peoples, but, on the contrary, emphasizes its contribution to world development in the post-war period. At the same time, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe notes that generations that are not related to the war should not “bear the burden of apologies.”

After Shinzo Abe came to the post of Prime Minister of Japan in 2006, Sino-Japanese relations warmed up, the leaders of the two countries met, laying the foundation for a joint historical study, the purpose of which was a new interpretation of the crimes committed by the Japanese during World War II in China. But already in early 2010, relations deteriorated again due to Japan's accusation of China in refusing to provide it with reserves of vital rare earth metals. And in 2012, they escalated even more because of the disputed territories of the Diaoyu Islands.

On May 23, 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered an important speech at the Great Hall of the People on the development of Sino-Japanese relations. The Secretary General paid close attention to the fact that the foundation of Sino-Japanese friendship is the people. The future of relations between China and Japan is in the hands of the peoples of these countries. Xi Jinping also stressed that any attempt to distort the reality of historical facts is a crime.

According to Professor Zhou Yongsheng of Beijing University of International Relations, in order to promote the development of relations between China and Japan, on the one hand, Japanese leaders need to remain calm and not challenge China on the above controversial issues; on the other hand, it is also necessary to take advantage of favorable opportunities to improve relations between both countries, not to spoil relations, to communicate with each other, to strengthen mutual trust.

Bibliographic link

Illarionova L.S. PECULIARITIES OF CHINA AND JAPAN RELATIONS AT THE PRESENT STAGE // International Journal of Applied and Fundamental Research. - 2016. - No. 1-1. – P. 95-96;
URL: https://applied-research.ru/ru/article/view?id=8313 (date of access: 02/26/2019). We bring to your attention the journals published by the publishing house "Academy of Natural History"

The rivalry between Beijing and Tokyo will no doubt last for a long time to come.

*** "We hereby award you the title of 'Queen of Wa, friendly to Wei'... May your reign, O Queen, be peaceful and your deeds disinterested." — from a letter from Emperor Cao Rui to the Japanese Empress Himiko in 238 AD, Wei Zhi (History of the Kingdom of Wei, c. 297 AD) ***

*** “From the emperor of the country where the sun rises to the emperor of the country where the sun sets,” from a letter from Empress Suiko to Emperor Yangdi of the Sui Dynasty dated 607 AD. e., "Nihon shoki" ("Annals of Japan", 720 AD)

The specter of two of the world's strongest countries competing for power and influence is shaping the ideas of scholars and observers who argue that the future of Asia, and perhaps even the world, will be shaped by the United States and China. From economics to political influence and security issues, American and Chinese politics are seen as inherently contradictory, creating an uneasy relationship between Washington and Beijing that affects many other countries in Asia and beyond.

However, this scenario often ignores another aspect of intra-Asian competition that may well be just as important as in the case of America and China. For millennia, the relationship between China and Japan has been more interdependent, competitive, and weighty than the recent ties between Washington and Beijing. Each side aspired to dominance or at least the greatest influence in Asia, and it was this rivalry that determined the relationship of each of them with their neighbors at various stages of history.

Today, there is little doubt that Sino-American competition has the greatest direct impact on the entire Asian region, especially in the field of security. America's long-standing alliances, including with Japan, and the provision of public security benefits such as freedom of navigation remain major alternative strategies to Beijing's security policy. In any potential clash between the two major Asian powers, one of the antagonists is naturally China and the United States. However, it would be a mistake to ignore the Sino-Japanese rivalry as something of secondary importance. These two Asian states will no doubt compete long after US foreign policy is shaped, whether Washington withdraws from Asia, reluctantly accepts Chinese hegemony, or bolsters its security and political presence. Moreover, Asian countries themselves understand that Sino-Japanese relations represent a new great game in Asia, and in many ways, eternal competition.

Several centuries before the appearance of the first historical data about Japan, not to mention the formation of the first centralized state, the envoys of its largest clan appeared at the court of the Han Dynasty and its successors. The first arrivals in the Eastern Han were representatives of the Wa people in 57 AD. e., although some documents date the first meetings between the Chinese and Japanese communities to the end of the second century BC. e. It is quite natural that these references to Sino-Japanese relations are closely related to China's invasion of the Korean Peninsula, with which ancient Japan has been trading since ancient times. And observers of the time were not surprised by the Wei court's expectation of reverence for China. Slightly more surprising, perhaps, is the seventh-century attempt by a newly-minted island state, just beginning to unite, to proclaim not only equality with the most powerful country in Asia, but also superiority over it.

The large-scale nature of Sino-Japanese relations became evident from the early stages: competition for influence, claims of both sides for superiority and complexity in the context of the geopolitical balance in Asia. And although two millennia have already passed, the foundation of these relations has changed little. However, now a new variable has been added to the equation. Over the past centuries, at a certain point in time, only one of the two powers differed in power, influence and the presence of international relations, and today both of them are strong, united, global players, well aware of the strengths of the opponent and their own weaknesses.

Most American and even Asian observers believe that in the foreseeable future, the situation in Asia, and even around the world, will be determined precisely by Sino-American relations. However, competition between China and Japan has existed for much longer, and therefore its significance should not be underestimated. As the U.S. begins a period of introspection and adjustment of foreign and security policy after Iraq and Afghanistan, the ongoing struggle to maintain vast global commitments, and the determination of Donald Trump's intended foreign policy adjustment, the age-old rivalry between Tokyo and Beijing is about to enter an even more intense phase. . It is these dynamics that are likely to shape the future of Asia, as well as the relationship between Washington and Beijing, in the coming decades.

The claim that Asia's future will be decided between China and Japan may sound fanciful, especially after two decades of extraordinary economic growth that has seen China become the world's largest economy (at least in terms of purchasing power parity) and a parallel 25 years of economic stagnation in Japan. Yet, in 1980, the same claim would have sounded just as unrealistic, except when Japan had been accumulating economic returns in double-digit and high-single digits for several years, while China was barely able to pull itself out of a generation-long economic return. the catastrophes of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. Just a few decades ago, it was predicted that Japan would become a world financial power in the full sense of the word, and only the United States would be able to resist it.

However, for most of history, comparing Japan to China was simply not practical. Island powers are rarely able to compete with cohesive continental states. Since the emergence of unified Chinese empires, starting with the Qin Empire in 221 BC. e., Japan has always lagged behind its continental neighbor. Even during periods of disunity, many disparate and competing parts of China were either the same size as Japan or larger. Thus, during the half century of the Three Kingdoms era, when Japan's Queen Wa paid homage to the kingdom of Wei, each of the three domains - Wei, Shu, and Wu - controlled more territory than Japan's nascent imperial house. China's natural sense of superiority was reflected in the very word used to refer to Japan - Wa, which means "dwarf people" or, alternatively, "submissive people", which was in line with Chinese ideology regarding other ethnic groups in antiquity. Similarly, due to Japan's geographic isolation from the continent, the dangerous crossing of the Sea of ​​Japan to Korea was only rarely attempted by intrepid Buddhist monks and merchants. Early Chinese chronicles repeatedly described Japan as a country "in the middle of the ocean", emphasizing its isolation and difference from continental states. Long periods of Japanese political isolation, such as the Heian period (794-1185) or the Edo period (1603-1868), also indicated that Japan was largely outside the mainstream of Asian historical development for centuries.

The dawn of the modern world has turned the traditional inequalities between Japan and China on its head. Indeed, what the Chinese continue to call the “age of humiliation,” from the Opium War of 1839 to the victory of the Chinese Communist Party in 1949, largely coincided with Japan’s rise to become the world’s first major non-Western power. As the centuries-old Qing dynasty collapsed, and with it China's thousand-year-old imperial system, Japan became a modern nation-state that would inflict military defeat on two of the greatest empires of its time: China itself in 1895 and Tsarist Russia a decade later. Japan's disastrous decision to invade Manchuria in the 1930s and fight simultaneously with the United States and other European powers led to the devastation of all of Asia. However, as China plunged into decades of military dictatorship after the 1911 revolution and then into civil war between Chiang Kai-shek's nationalists and Mao Zedong's communists, Japan became the world's second-largest economy after the devastation of 1945.

Since 1990, however, the tide has changed, and China has assumed an even more dominant position in the world, something that Tokyo, at the height of its post-war dominance, could only dream of. If we imagine an international power as a three-legged stool based on political influence, economic dynamism and military strength, then Japan fully developed its economic potential only after the Second World War, and then lost its position a few decades later. Beijing, meanwhile, has dominated international political forums as it builds the world's second-largest military and becomes a trading partner for more than 100 nations around the world.

And yet, in comparative terms, both China and Japan are now rich and powerful states. Despite a generation of economic stagnation, Japan remains the third largest economy in the world. It spends roughly $50 billion a year on its military, resulting in one of the most advanced and well-trained armies on the planet. On the continent, the second most powerful country in the world after the United States is China, with its audacious Belt and Road initiative, free trade proposals and a growing area of ​​military influence. This approximate parity is something new in the context of Japan-China relations, and perhaps also the most important, but not often recognized, factor. It also became an incentive for intense competition between the parties in Asia.

In fact, competition between countries does not lead to aggression or any particularly contentious relationship. Indeed, looking at Sino-Japanese relations from the perspective of 2017 may distort how traditionally their ties have been uneasy. For long periods of its history, Japan has regarded China as a beacon in a dark sea—the most advanced civilization in Asia and a model of political, economic, and sociocultural forms. And although sometimes this admiration turned into an attempt to declare equality, if not superiority, as in the era of the Tang dynasty (7th-10th century) or a millennium later during the reign of the Tokugawa shoguns (17th-19th centuries), talk about the lack of interaction between two sides would be a mistake. Similarly, the Chinese reformers realized that in the late nineteenth century, Japan had made such significant strides in modernizing its feudal system that it had for a time become a role model itself. It is no coincidence that in the early years of the twentieth century, the father of the Chinese Revolution of 1911, Sun Yat-sen, lived during his exile from China in Japan. Even after Japan's brutal invasion and occupation of China in the Pacific theater of war, Japanese politicians in the 1960s and 1970s, such as Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei, tried to find common ground with China, restore relations, and even contemplate a new era of Sino-Japanese relations. that would later shape the Cold War in Asia.

Such fragile hopes, not to mention mutual respect, now seem simply impossible. For more than a decade, Japan and China have been locked in a seemingly unbreakable vicious circle in their relationship, characterized by suspicion and increasingly tight security, political and economic maneuvering. With the exception of the actual Japanese invasions of China in 1894-95 and 1937-45, the history of Japanese-Chinese competition has often been as rhetorical and intellectual as it is real. The current competition is more direct even under the conditions of Sino-Japanese economic integration and globalization.

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The current atmosphere of Japanese-Chinese hostility and distrust is clearly expressed. A series of opinion polls conducted by the Japanese non-profit think tank Genron NPO in 2015-16 revealed the dire state of relations between the two countries. In 2016, 78% of Chinese and 71% of Japanese surveyed described relations between their states as "bad" or "relatively bad". From 2015 to 2016, both sectors of the audience also saw a significant increase in expectations of worsening relations, from 13.6% to 20.5% for China and from 6.6% to 10.1% for Japan. When asked whether Sino-Japanese relations are a potential source of conflict in Asia, 46.3% of Japanese and 71.6% of Chinese answered yes. The same findings can be seen in other surveys, such as the one conducted in 2016 by the Pew Research Center: 86% of Japanese and 81% of Chinese held unfavorable views of each other.

The reasons for such high public distrust largely reflect the unresolved political disputes between Beijing and Tokyo. A Genron NPO survey showed that more than 60% of Chinese, for example, argued their unfavorable impression of Japan by the latter’s lack of excuses and remorse over World War II, as well as the nationalization in September 2012 of the Senkaku Islands, which China calls Diaoyu and considers its own. territory.

Indeed, the question of history haunts Sino-Japanese relations. Astute Chinese leaders used him as a moral "club" to strike at Tokyo. A Pew Research Center poll revealed that a vast majority of Chinese — 77% — believe that Japan has not yet sufficiently apologized for the war, and more than 50% of Japanese do not agree. Current Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's controversial visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors 18 Class A war criminals, in December 2013 was yet another provocation in the eyes of the Chinese that seemed to play down Japan's remorse for the war amid Abe's modest military buildup. and challenging Chinese claims in the East China Sea. A visit to China in the spring of 2017 did not reveal a decline in anti-Japanese representations on Chinese television; at least a third, if not more, of the programs broadcast during the evening hours talked about the Japanese invasion of China, given the plausibility that the fluent Japanese actors brought.

If the Chinese are focused on the past, then the Japanese are most concerned about the present and the future. In the same polls, almost 65% of Japanese said that their negative attitude towards China was due to the never-ending dispute over the Senkaku Islands, and more than 50% attributed the unfavorable impression to "seemingly hegemonic actions by the Chinese." Thus, 80% of Japanese and 59% of Chinese polled by the Pew Research Center said they were either "very" or "somewhat" concerned about the possibility of military conflict as a result of territorial disputes between their countries.

Such negative impressions and fear of war arise despite almost unprecedented levels of economic interaction. Even amid China's recent economic downturn, according to the CIA World Factbook, Japan remained China's third largest trading partner, accounting for 6% of exports and about 9% of imports; China turned out to be the largest trading partner for Japan, while the shares of exports and imports amounted to 17.5% and 25%, respectively. Although exact numbers are hard to come by, it is claimed that ten million Chinese are directly or indirectly employed by Japanese firms, most of them on the mainland. The neoliberal assumption that wider economic ties raise the threshold for security conflicts is not uncommon in Sino-Japanese relations, and both proponents and critics of the concept may argue that this is the correct interpretation for now. Since the decline in relations under Junichiro Koizumi's administration, Japanese scholars such as Masaya Inoue have described them as seirei keinetsu: cool politically and warm economically. That relationship is also reflected in the rise in the number of Chinese tourists traveling to Japan (nearly 6.4 million in 2016) and the Chinese National Tourism Administration's claims that about 2.5 million Japanese visited the country, surpassing these numbers. only South Korean tourists can do it.

However, the developing Sino-Japanese economic relations could not remain unaffected by geopolitical tensions. Disputes over the Senkaku archipelago led to a sharp decline in Japanese foreign direct investment in China in 2013 and 2014, with investment falling by 20 percent and 50 percent year-on-year, respectively. This decline was accompanied by a similar increase in Japanese investment in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

The negative attitude of Japanese business towards China is reflected in the political and intellectual spheres. Japanese analysts worried for years about the long-term effects of China's rise, and then these fears turned into open anxiety, especially after China's economy outperformed Japan's in 2011. Since the political crisis sparked by the repeated incidents in the Senkaku Islands began in 2010, politicians in Tokyo have interpreted Beijing's actions as a show of newfound national strength and become frustrated with the United States for its seemingly arrogant attitude towards Chinese assertiveness in the East China Sea. In 2016, at an international conference I attended, a senior Japanese diplomat lambasted Washington and other Asian capitals for using mere rhetoric to fight China's expansion in Asian waters and warned that it would probably be too late to dampen Beijing's ardour. in the process of gaining military dominance. "You don't understand," he repeated with unusual bluntness, denouncing what he considered (like perhaps his superiors) to be unjustified complacency in connection with China's claims throughout Asia. It is not difficult to understand that some leading ideologues and officials view China as a five-minute deadly threat to Japan's freedom of action.

As for Chinese officials, almost all of them treat Japan and its future prospects with disdain. One of the leading scientists told me that the number of wealthy Chinese citizens already exceeded the total population of Japan, and therefore there could be no question of any competition between the parties; according to him, Japan is simply not able to stay afloat, and therefore its influence (and ability to resist China) is doomed to disappear. A similar almost entirely negative view of Japan was demonstrated by my visit to one of China's most influential think tanks. Numerous analysts have expressed skepticism about Japan's intentions in the South China Sea, demonstrating concern about Japan's growing activity in the region. “Japan wants to get out of the [post-war] American system and end the alliance,” argued one analyst. Another criticized Tokyo for its "destructive role" in Asia and for building a shaky alliance against China. Underlying much of this sentiment among the Chinese elite is a refusal to recognize Japan's legitimacy as a core Asian state, along with fears that Japan is the only Asian country—other than, perhaps, India—that could prevent China from achieving certain goals, such as maritime dominance in the inland seas of Asia.

The sense of distrust between China and Japan is not only a testament to long-standing tensions, but also to both countries' uncertainty about their positions in Asia. Taken together, such instability and tension breed competition, even as large-scale economic relations are maintained.

China's and Japan's foreign policy in Asia increasingly seems to be aimed at countering each other's influence—or blocking goals. Such a competitive approach is carried out in the context of the deep economic interactions noted above, as well as the superficial hospitality of regular diplomatic exchanges. In fact, one of the most immediate conflicts is in the area of ​​regional trade and investment.

With the start of economic modernization and the creation of a post-war political alliance with the United States, Japan helped shape the nascent economic institutions and agreements in Asia. The Asian Development Bank (ADB), founded in Manila in 1966, has always been led by the Japanese President in close cooperation with the World Bank. These two institutions set most of the standards for sovereign lending, including expectations for political reform and broad national development. In addition to ADB, Japan has also spent hundreds of billions of dollars of official development assistance since 1954. By 2003 it had disbursed $221 billion globally, and in 2014 it was still spending about $7 billion in official aid; 3.7 billion of this amount was spent in East and South Asia, especially in Southeast Asia and Myanmar. Political scientists Barbara Stallings and Yoon Mi Kim noted that, overall, more than 60% of Japan's foreign aid goes to East, South and Central Asia. Japanese aid has traditionally focused on infrastructure development, water supply and sanitation, healthcare, and human resource development.

As for China, in terms of organizational initiatives and assistance, it has always lagged behind Japan, although in the 1950s it also began to provide assistance abroad. Scholars note that assessing China's development assistance to neighbors is hampered in part by duplication of commercial transactions with foreign countries. In addition, more than half of aid goes to sub-Saharan Africa and only 30% goes to East, South and Central Asia.

In recent years, Beijing has begun to increase its activity in both areas as part of a comprehensive regional foreign policy. Perhaps most notable has been China's recent efforts to diversify Asia's regional financial architecture through the creation of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). The corresponding proposal was announced in 2013, and the bank officially opened in January 2016 and soon attracted the participation of almost all states, with the exception of Japan and the United States. The AIIB explicitly sought to "democratize" the regional lending process, as Beijing had long complained about ADB's harsh rules and governance, which gave China less than 7% of total voting shares, while Japan and the United States secured 15% each. Providing China with a dominant position, Beijing owns 32% of the shares of the AIIB and 27.5% of the votes; the next largest shareholder is India with 9% of the shares and just over 8% of the votes. Compared with ADB assets of about $160 billion and $30 billion in loan terms, the AIIB still has a long way to go towards achieving a size commensurate with its ambitions. It was originally given $100 billion, but only ten of those have been paid out to date, on track to the $20 billion goal. Given its initially small base, the AIIB disbursed only 1.7 billion in loans in its first year, with another 2 billion planned for 2017.

Many in Asia support the apparent rivalry between China and Japan in aid and finance. Officials in countries desperate for infrastructure, such as Indonesia, are hoping for a happy set of circumstances in the ADB-AIIB competition, in which Japan's high social and environmental standards will help improve the quality of Chinese loans, and China's lower cost structure will make projects more affordable. With $26 trillion in infrastructure needs by 2030, the more additional sources of funding and assistance are available, the better, according to the ADB, even if Tokyo and Beijing see both financial institutions as tools to achieve more substantial goals.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has tied the AIIB to his ambitious, not to say grandiose, Belt and Road Initiative, turning the new bank into a virtual infrastructure lending complex alongside the old China Development Bank and the new Silk Road Fund. Compared to Japan, China has focused most of its foreign aid on infrastructure, and the Belt and Road Initiative is the latest and largest implementation of this priority. It is this initiative, also known as the "new Silk Road", that represents one of the key challenges for Japan's economic presence in Asia. At the first Belt and Road Forum held in Beijing in May 2017, Xi pledged to invest $1 trillion in infrastructure spanning Eurasia and beyond, trying to basically link land and sea trade routes in the context of a new global economic architecture. Xi also pledged that the Belt and Road Initiative will seek to reduce poverty in both Asia and the world. Despite the widespread suspicion that the sums invested in the initiative will turn out to be much lower than promised, Xi's scheme is both a political and an economic program.

Functioning as a quasi-trade agreement, the Belt and Road Initiative also highlights Tokyo-Beijing competition in free trade. Despite what many see as a fearful and sluggish trade policy, the Japanese economist Kiyoshi Kojima proposed the creation of an "Asia-Pacific Free Trade Area" in fact as early as 1966, although in earnest the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum The idea began to be perceived only in the mid-2000s. In 2003, Japan and ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) began negotiations on a free trade agreement, which came into force in 2008.

Japan's main impetus for free trade was the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which it formally joined in 2013. Linking Japan to the United States and ten other Pacific nations, the TPP would account for almost 40% of world output and a quarter of world trade. However, with the US withdrawal from the TPP in January 2017, the future of the pact was in doubt. Prime Minister Abe is unenthusiastic about the prospect of renegotiating the pact, given the political capital spent on launching it. For Japan, the TPP continues to be a functional element of a larger unity of interest based on the expansion of trade and investment and the adoption of common regulatory schemes.

China has been striving to catch up with Japan on the trade front for the past decade, signing its own free trade agreement with ASEAN in 2010 and renewing it in 2015 with the goal of achieving $1 trillion worth of bilateral trade and investment by 2020. in the amount of 150 billion. More importantly, in 2011, China adopted an ASEAN initiative known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) to link ten ASEAN states with six dialogue partners: China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, and New Zealand. RCEP, which accounts for nearly 40% of global production and nearly 3.5 billion people, is increasingly seen as the Chinese alternative to the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

While Japan and Australia have sought, in particular, to slow down a final RCEP deal, Beijing has received a huge boost from the Trump administration's withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which has resulted in the widespread belief that China has emerged as the world's economic powerhouse. Tokyo is not particularly successful in combating such an opinion, but continues to offer alternatives to China's dominant economic initiatives. One of these approaches is to continue negotiations under the RCEP, and the other is to jointly finance certain projects between ADB and AIIB. Such joint competition between Japan and China may become the norm in the context of regional economic relations, even though each side seeks to maximize its influence both in the institutions of power and with Asian states.

When it comes to security issues, the struggle between Beijing and Tokyo for influence and power in Asia is far less ambiguous. In the case of Japan, which is well known for its pacifist society and various restrictions on its military, it may seem strange that over the past decade China and Japan have sought to break out of stereotypical security structures. Beijing is focused on the United States, which it considers a serious threat to its freedom of action in the Asia-Pacific region. But observers should not ignore the degree of concern about Japan among Chinese politicians and analysts, some of whom see the threat posed by it as greater than even the American one.

Neither Japan nor China have any real allies in Asia, a fact that is often overlooked when discussing their regional foreign policies. They dominate or have the potential to dominate their smaller neighbors, making it difficult to build trust. Moreover, Asia has memories of each as an imperialist power, providing yet another reason for often tacit wariness.

For Japan, this distrust is exacerbated by its onerous attempt to deal with the legacy of World War II, and by the feeling in most Asian states that it hasn't apologized enough for its aggression and atrocities. Yet Japan's longstanding pacifist constitution and its limited military presence in Asia after 1945 helped ease suspicions about its intentions. Since the 1970s, Tokyo has prioritized building ties with the countries of Southeast Asia, although the latter have until recently focused mainly on trade.

Returning to power in 2012, Prime Minister Abe decided to increase Japan's defense spending and begin building up security cooperation in the region. After a decade of decline, each of Abe's defense budgets has been increasingly substantial since 2013, and now totals about $50 billion a year. Then, by reforming post-war legal restrictions such as arms bans and collective self-defense, Abe tried to offer Japan's support as a way to weaken China's growing military presence in Asia. The sale of maritime patrol boats and aircraft to other countries, including Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines, is intended to help build the capacity of these states in territorial disputes with China over the Spratly archipelago and the Paracel Islands. Similarly, Tokyo hoped to sell the next generation of its submarines to Australia as well as provide India with amphibious search and rescue aircraft, although both of these plans ultimately either failed or were put on hold.

Despite such setbacks, Japan has expanded its security cooperation with various Asian states, including in the South China Sea. She officially joined the Indian-American naval exercises "Malabar", and in July 2017 sent her largest helicopter carrier to the exercises after three months of calls in the ports of Southeast Asia. The Japan Coast Guard is still actively engaged with countries in the region and plans to establish a joint maritime security organization with the Southeast Asian Coast Guard to help them deal not only with piracy and natural disasters, but also improve their ability to control and protect disputed territories in Southeast Asia. - China Sea. And most recently, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono announced a $500 million maritime security initiative in Southeast Asia to build capacity between nations along the busiest waterways.

If Tokyo was trying to build bridges to Asian countries, Beijing was building artificial islands in an attempt to gain recognition as the dominant Asian security power. China faces a more complex security equation in Asia than Japan, given disputes in the East China and South China Seas, as well as territorial disputes with neighbors, including major countries like India. The dramatic growth of China's military forces over the past two decades has led not only to a more efficient navy and air force, but also to a policy aimed at defending and even extending its claims. The resonant land reclaiming and building of bases on the Spratly Islands exemplify Beijing's decision to defend its claims and back them up with a military presence that dwarfs the efforts of other rivals in the South China Sea. Similarly, the increase in China's maritime exercises in areas far from claimed territories, such as Malaysia's James Reef, has worried states that view Beijing's growing capability as a likely threat.

China has certainly made an attempt to resolve these issues through maritime diplomacy, namely the ongoing series of negotiations with ASEAN states on the South China Sea Code of Conduct and joint exercises with Malaysia. However, repeated acts of intimidation or outright warnings against Asian states have chilled all goodwill and made smaller states wonder how long it is worth condoning China's expansionist activities. In addition, the region is concerned that Beijing categorically rejects the decision of the International Court of Justice of The Hague regarding its claims to territory in the South China Sea. Unlike Japan, China did not seek to win friends through the supply of defensive equipment; the bulk of China's military sales in Asia go to North Korea, Bangladesh and Burma, forming a shaky structure, along with Pakistan (the largest consumer of Chinese arms supplies), isolated from those cooperating with Japan and the United States.

China's approach, which is a combination of pragmatic politics and limited power politics, is more likely to achieve its goals, at least in the short term, if not longer. Small states have no illusions about their ability to successfully resist Chinese encroachment; they hope either for Beijing's natural restraint or for an impossible task that will allow collective pressure to influence China's decision-making process. In this situation, Japan acts, first of all, as a "third wheel". Although Tokyo is able to defend its own territories in the East China Sea, it knows that its power in the region is limited. This requires not only continuing, if not strengthening, allied relations with the United States, but also an approach that would help complicate Beijing's decision-making, for example, by providing defensive equipment to the countries of Southeast Asia. Tokyo understands that it has the potential to help thwart—but not contain—Chinese expansion in Asia. In other words, Asia faces competing security strategies from its two most powerful countries: Japan seeks popularity; China - inspire fear.

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A deeper manifestation of Sino-Japanese rivalry is the model of Asian national development tacitly proposed by each side. It's not that Beijing is waiting for Pacific governments to embrace communism or for Tokyo to help establish parliamentary democracy. It is rather a fundamental question of how each state is treated by its neighbors and the influence of the parties in the region through the perception of their national strength, government effectiveness, social dynamism and the opportunities provided by the system.

Admittedly, this is a highly subjective approach, and evidence as to which of the two countries is more influential is likely to be anecdotal, inferential, and circumstantial rather than unequivocally informative. And this is not the same as the ubiquitous concept of using non-military methods. Non-coercive power is usually considered an element of national power and, in particular, the attractiveness of a particular system regarding the creation of conditions through which a given state can achieve political goals. While Beijing and Tokyo are clearly interested in advancing their national interests, the issue differs from how each side perceives and benefits from their policies.

Long gone are the days when Mahathir Mohamad could proclaim Japan as a role model from the perspective of Malaysia, and China considered Japan's modernization model as a paradigm. Tokyo's hopes of using its economic ties to Southeast Asia - the so-called "flock of flying geese" concept - for wider political influence were dashed by the rise of China in the 1990s. Beijing is the largest trading partner for all Asian states, where it occupies a central position. But Sino-Japanese relations have remained largely business-like amid lingering fears of overconfidence and Beijing's fears of being overwhelmed economically. In the short term, China may seem more influential due to its economic power, but even this translates into political success only in places. Nor is there an increase in the number of Asian states trying to imitate China's political model.

Alternatively, Tokyo and Beijing continue to compete for position and influence. Each of them negotiates with basically the same set of Asian entities, thus providing what Asians almost five minutes to consider market competition, in which small states are able to make better deals than if they deal with only one of the two sides. Moreover, both China and Japan base their policies in part on perceptions of US policy in Asia. Japan's alliance with the United States effectively unites Tokyo and Washington in a single bloc against Beijing, and also creates deep uncertainty about American intentions. Japan's concern about the plausibility of American promises to continue its involvement in the Asia-Pacific region sets the stage for Tokyo's plans for military modernization, partly to become a more effective partner and partly to avoid overdependence. At the same time, uncertainty about America's long-term policy is fueling Japan's desire to deepen relations and cooperation with India, Vietnam and other countries that share its concerns about China's growing military power. Similarly, Beijing's response to the Obama administration's involvement in the South China Sea territorial dispute has been a program of land reclamation and base building on the Spratly Islands. The same can be said for China's finance and free trade initiatives, which are aimed at least in part at weakening the Trans-Pacific Partnership that was heavily promoted (but not initiated) by Washington, or the World Bank's continued influence on regional lending.

From a purely material point of view, Japan will be left behind in any direct competition. Its days of economic glory are long gone, and it has never been particularly successful in transforming its still relatively powerful economy into political influence. The realization of the failure of its political system reinforces the feeling that Japan will most likely never regain the dynamism that characterized it in the first decades after the war.

However, Japan, as a stable democracy with a largely satisfied, highly educated and healthy population, is still considered a benchmark for many Asian states. Having solved the problem of environmental pollution long ago and having a low crime rate, Japan is an attractive model for developing societies. Moderate foreign policy and minimal foreign military operations, combined with generous foreign aid, make Japan the most popular country in Asia, according to one Pew Research Center poll in 2015 — 71% of respondents were positive. China's approval rating was only 57%, and a third of respondents were negative.

But Japan's current reputation and attractiveness are only beneficial to a certain extent. When asked in 2016 by Japan's Genron NPO about Japan's potential rise in influence by 2026, 11.6% of Chinese and 23% of South Koreans answered yes; Surprisingly, only 28.5% of the Japanese themselves thought so. When Genron asked the same question about China in 2015, it turned out that 82.5% of Chinese, 80% of South Koreans and 60% of Japanese expect its growth in Asia by 2025. Two decades of China's economic growth and the stagnation of the Japanese economy are undoubtedly the cause of these results, but China's recent political initiatives under Xi Jinping probably also play a role.

Although Japan scored lower in regional opinion polls, China has sparked a wave of expectations that its might will become the dominant power in Asia, if not the world. This facilitated the process of bringing Asian states into cooperation or a wary neutrality. The AIIB is just one example of the convergence of Asian countries on the Chinese proposal; Others include the One Belt, One Road initiative. Beijing has also used its influence in a negative way, for example by putting pressure on Southeast Asian states such as Cambodia and Laos to counter harsh criticism of China's territorial claims in joint ASEAN communiqués.

At times, China's dominance worked against it, and Japan took advantage of the region's concerns about its power. When ASEAN member states proposed what became the East Asia Summit in the early 2000s, with China, Japan, and South Korea, Tokyo, together with Singapore, successfully lobbied for Australia, India, and New Zealand to become full members as well. This addition of three more democracies was aimed at weakening China's influence in what was expected to be the largest pan-Asian multilateral initiative, and therefore was openly condemned by the Chinese media.

Neither Japan nor China has succeeded in establishing itself as the undisputed great power of Asia. The countries of Southeast Asia want, above all, not to be dragged into the Sino-Japanese—or, almost equivalently, Sino-American/Japanese—political and security dispute. Scholars Bhubhindar Singh, Sara Theo and Benjamin Ho argue that in recent years, ASEAN states have begun to pay more attention to relations between the United States and China, since it is the United States that has allies among the countries of Southeast Asia and it is the United States that has become involved in the dispute over territories in the South - China Sea.

However, Sino-Japanese relations are considered critical in the context of Asian stability in the short and long term. While this particular concern focuses more on security issues than on the more serious issues of national patterns, when national development comes into focus, the emphasis on China and Japan becomes even clearer. No one dismisses the continued importance of the United States in the context of Asia's short and medium term future, but awareness of the long history of Sino-Japanese relations and competition is a key element of a broader regional perception of power, leadership, and threat that will have a significant impact on Asia in the coming decades.

It would be banal, but useful, to say that neither Japan nor China can leave Asia. They are connected to each other and to their neighbors, and both have strained relations with the US. Economic ties between Japan and China are likely to deepen in the future, even if both sides begin to look for alternative opportunities and strive to structure Asian trade and economic relations in the most beneficial ways from the point of view of their interests. Without a doubt, there will be episodes of very intense political cooperation between Beijing and Tokyo, as well as a minimum number of ordinary diplomatic conventions. Exchanges at the local level will continue - at least thanks to millions of tourists.

However, as the history and civilizational achievements of these countries show, they will remain the two most powerful states in Asia, and this implies constant competition. Whether Japan remains allied with the United States or not, and whether China's aspirations to form a Pan-Asian Belt and Road Community succeed, the parties will not give up their attempts to influence the political, economic and security situation in Asia. Given the fact that the United States continues to challenge its global commitments and interests, leading to periods of relative attrition in Asia, China and Japan will remain bound by the complex, often tense and competitive relationship that is the never-ending big game in Asia.

Michael Oslin studies contemporary Asian issues at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He wrote this article while he was a permanent fellow of the American Enterprise Institute.

The materials of InoSMI contain only assessments of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the editors of InoSMI.

China blames Japan for incident

The latest aggravation of Sino-Japanese relations, which occurred due to the incident with the detention of a Chinese fishing vessel, once again highlighted a whole range of unresolved problems between the countries. All the agreements reached by Beijing and Tokyo on the problem of oil and gas fields in the East China Sea were in jeopardy, and the propaganda campaign in the Chinese media noticeably fueled anti-Japanese sentiments in society, which had been "dormant" in the past few years against the backdrop of some improvement in relations between the countries.

It all started on September 7 with the detention of a Chinese fishing trawler by patrol ships of the Japanese Coast Guard. The Chinese media reported only about the illegal actions of the Japanese side, as well as the collision of a fishing boat with Japanese patrol ships. Details in the information space of the PRC were not specified. In the Japanese press, on the contrary, a broad picture of what happened was given. According to the official version, the Chinese ship crashed first into the Japanese Yonakuni ship, and then into the Mizuki patrol ship. A Chinese trawler tried to escape from Japanese border guards after they demanded it be stopped to check the legality of its fishing in the area of ​​the Diaoyu Islands, which are the subject of a territorial dispute between Beijing and Tokyo. Japan said the Chinese vessel was engaged in illegal fishing in its territorial waters.

China's reaction was immediate. On the same day, at a briefing for journalists, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said that Beijing reserves the right to retaliate in connection with this incident. "Official Beijing expresses serious concern over this incident," the Chinese diplomat stressed, "and has already made a corresponding presentation to the Japanese side." "The Diaoyu Island and its surrounding areas have long belonged to China, which opposes the Japanese side's so-called law enforcement activities there and urges Tokyo to refrain from activities in the area that threaten the safety of Chinese citizens," Jiang Yu said. "In connection with this incident, we reserve the right to respond," - summed up the official representative of the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Just a few hours later, on September 7, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Song Tao called the Japanese Ambassador to China and made a serious introduction to him in connection with the detention of a Chinese fishing boat in the Diaoyu Islands (Senkaku) Islands. In a conversation with the ambassador, the Chinese deputy foreign minister demanded that "Japanese patrol ships stop their illegal activities to detain Chinese fishing boats." This was the beginning of a whole series of protests and harsh statements from Beijing. Japan, in turn, announced its intention to judge the captain of a Chinese fishing trawler according to its own laws.
Over the next few days, China's statements became more and more harsh, and warnings began to be heard in the protests of the Chinese Foreign Ministry about the possible negative impact of this incident on the further development of bilateral relations. "We demand that the Japanese side release the Chinese fishing vessel unconditionally to avoid further aggravation of the situation," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a regular briefing. "The Diaoyu Islands have been part of Chinese territory since ancient times," she recalled Beijing's official position. In this regard, she stressed, "the detention of a Chinese fishing vessel by the Japanese side on the basis of Japanese law is null and void and illegal." "The Chinese side cannot accept this," she said. Answering a reporter's question about whether this incident will affect the joint Sino-Japanese development of gas fields in the disputed Diaoyu Islands, Jiang Yu noted that "the issue of territorial ownership is very sensitive, the Japanese government itself understands how seriously it can have a serious impact on bilateral relations. generally".

Beijing's next step was to raise the level of official statements. On September 10, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi protested. For this purpose, the Japanese Ambassador to China was once again summoned to the country's Foreign Ministry. Yang Jiechi demanded that the Japanese side "immediately and unconditionally release the fishing vessel along with the captain and crew."

Japan remained cool in response to all these harsh statements from the Chinese foreign ministry and continued to insist on the need for the captain's response before Japanese law. The situation began to gradually change after China, as part of its response, on September 11 announced a decision to suspend negotiations with Japan on the East China Sea, concerning the joint development of oil and gas fields in disputed areas. Negotiations between the two countries concerned the principles of a common understanding of the problems of the East China Sea, including issues of territorial delimitation, their second round was scheduled for mid-September. "The Japanese side ignored China's repeated strong submissions and firm stance, and stubbornly decided to bring the case of the captain of the Chinese ship under the so-called "legal procedure."

China expresses its extreme displeasure and the most serious protest about this," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The day after this statement, Dai Bingguo, a member of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, demanded the release of the captain of the fishing trawler, whose claims against Tokyo also had to be heard by the Japanese ambassador to China, who was called "on the carpet" late at night, which was also intended to demonstrate the seriousness of Beijing's dissatisfaction with the emerging situation. Dai Bingguo was not verbose, following up on demanding the release of all detained Chinese citizens, he expressed hope that Japan would "make a wise political decision."

China's insistence forced Japan to make its first concessions, and on September 13, 14 crew members of the fishing trawler were released, while the ship's captain remained in the Land of the Rising Sun awaiting the end of the trial. Over the next few days, China did not slacken its pressure, blaming Japan for the aggravation of bilateral relations at the level of official statements. In parallel, active propaganda was carried out in the media, fueling the intensity of passions around this incident and anti-Japanese sentiments in society.

After ten days of continuous statements, official protests and demands to release the detained captain of a Chinese fishing trawler, Beijing has decided to go ahead and declare its sovereign rights to develop the Chunxiao oil and gas field in the East China Sea, which is the subject of a territorial dispute with Japan. "China has full sovereign right and jurisdiction over the Chunxiao oil and gas field," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said. Jiang Yu said, "The actions of the Chinese side in the area of ​​the Chunxiao field are absolutely legal."

Thus, a problem was touched upon, which has long been a stumbling block in relations between Beijing and Tokyo. China and Japan have been unable to agree on issues related to the development of oil and gas fields and the delimitation of control areas in the East China Sea for many years. Beijing does not accept Japan's proposal to divide zones of control along the median line and insists that its rights extend to the borders of China's mainland shelf, which ends almost at the southern Japanese island of Okinawa.

One of Beijing's harshest responses to Tokyo's detention of a fishing trawler captain was a ministerial-level announcement on September 19 that it would cut off contact with Japan. "The Chinese side has repeatedly stressed that the so-called litigation by the Japanese side against the captain of the Chinese vessel is illegal and useless," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in a statement. According to him, Beijing "demands that the Japanese side immediately and without any conditions release the Chinese captain." "If the Japanese side continues to act in its own way and add new ones to the existing mistakes, then the Chinese side will take tough retaliatory measures," Ma Zhaoxu said, stressing that "all responsibility for the consequences will lie with Japan."

It should be noted that the Chinese Foreign Ministry's statement itself said nothing about the termination of ministerial contacts with Japan. This information appeared on the tape of the Xinhua news agency, citing a source in the Chinese Foreign Ministry. The Japanese side, in turn, stated that it had not received a corresponding notification from China.

Beijing's last tough demarche before Japanese prosecutors on September 24 decided to release the captain of a fishing boat from custody was a statement by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, in which Japan was accused of encroaching on China's sovereignty. "Japan's illegal detention of Chinese fishermen and a Chinese boat in the Diaoyu Islands, and the continuation of the so-called domestic law prosecution, is a serious infringement on China's sovereignty and an open challenge from Japan," said Jiang Yu. The incident, she said, "stirred the Chinese public and caused serious damage to Sino-Japanese relations." "Only if Japan immediately corrects its mistake and releases the Chinese captain can further deterioration of bilateral relations be avoided," the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said. According to her, this requirement must be met immediately if Japan "really values ​​bilateral relations."

Observers indirectly link the release of the Chinese captain to the detention of four Japanese citizens in northern China's Hebei province for illegally filming military installations in a protected area. Information about this appeared on September 23 - on the eve of the relevant decision of the Japanese prosecutor's office. A laconic report from Xinhua News Agency stated that "Shijiazhuang City Public Security took action against the four people in accordance with the law after receiving information about their illegal activities." "The case is currently under investigation," the city's public security department said.

With the release of the crew of the fishing vessel and the captain, China did not stop harsh attacks against Japan and demanded compensation and apologies from Tokyo for the incident in the Diaoyu Islands. The detention of the Chinese fishing trawler and crew members, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement, "was a gross violation of China's territorial integrity, and the Chinese government strongly protests this." "In connection with this incident, the Japanese side should apologize and pay compensation," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said. At the same time, the Chinese Foreign Ministry stressed that China and Japan are the closest neighbors and that "the continued development of strategic mutually beneficial relations is in the interests of the peoples of the two countries." "Both sides should resolve existing Sino-Japanese issues through dialogue and consultation," the statement said.

In general, it should be noted that China placed all responsibility for the damage caused to bilateral relations on Japan, from which it requires concrete steps to correct the current situation.

Officially, Beijing also categorically denies numerous foreign media speculations about a possible connection between the arrest of four Japanese citizens for illegally filming military installations and the release of the captain of a Chinese fishing trawler, which took place the day after. China has also made it clear that it intends to resolve the issue of the detained Japanese citizens on the basis of the legislation in force in the PRC. A number of experts believe that Beijing may be more determined towards the detained Japanese than Tokyo in the case of the captain of a Chinese fishing boat.

The most serious aggravation of relations in recent years

The diplomatic row between Japan and China threatens to become the most serious of those that have occurred in recent years.
A Chinese fishing trawler was detained by the Japanese Coast Guard. During the detention, he twice collided with patrol ships, but was eventually taken under control and towed to the nearest port of Ishigaki Island / Okinawa Prefecture /. The ship's captain was arrested.

Such an incident in itself served as a pretext for a diplomatic scandal, but the situation was exacerbated by the fact that the detention took place in the area of ​​​​the islands, which are the subject of a long-standing territorial dispute between Japan and China. The uninhabited Diaoyu Islands have been mentioned in Chinese chronicles as a territory of the Celestial Empire since the middle of the 14th century. The archipelago came under the control of the Japanese Empire along with Taiwan among the nearby islands after the victory over China in the war of 1894-1895 and received the official name of Senkaku.

In 1944, in Japan, there was an internal territorial dispute over the ownership of the islands between the prefectures of Okinawa and Taihoku / Taiwan /, which the Tokyo court decided in favor of the latter. A year later, Japan capitulated in World War II and renounced all of its conquests, and Taiwan in particular. According to the logic of Beijing, together with Taiwan, Tokyo should have returned Senkaku, but Japan retained its sovereignty over the archipelago. Disagreeing with this decision, China first focused on the territorial dispute in 1992, declaring the islands "originally Chinese territory." In 1999, a large gas field was discovered in the East China Sea near Senkaku. All of these factors have fueled a smoldering territorial conflict ever since, which escalates from time to time.

However, this time the PRC's response to the detention of the ship was somewhat unexpected and extremely unpleasant for Japan. In addition to a series of calls to the Foreign Ministry of the Japanese ambassador to China, Beijing reacted by immediately terminating negotiations on the joint development of gas fields with Tokyo in the East China Sea. Moreover, the Chinese side transported unknown equipment to the area of ​​gas fields that could be used for drilling, which would be contrary to the Japanese-Chinese agreement. In addition, Beijing stopped exporting rare earth metals to Japan and suspended joint tourism projects. All this caused serious concern in Tokyo.

Nevertheless, the Japanese government responded to China's statements in a rather familiar way, expressing regret for Beijing's unfriendly actions and offering to calmly sort out the situation, but he refused to enter into a dialogue. China was also not satisfied with the release of the detained ship, since the captain of the ship, whom the country's authorities intended to try, remained in custody in Japan. Under Japanese law, he faced three years in prison or about $6,000 in fines. There was a stalemate in the conflict that lasted for two weeks. Everything changed only after 4 employees of the Japanese company Fujita, citizens of Japan, were detained in the Chinese province of Hebei for illegal filming of a chemical weapons disposal plant under construction.
In Tokyo, this detention was perceived as a signal from the PRC about the desire to exchange the detained Japanese for the captain of the trawler. On the same day, by decision of the prosecutor's office, a Chinese citizen was released from custody and he returned to China on a charter flight.

The decision of the Japanese prosecutor's office to release the captain of the offending vessel received rather skeptical assessments in the Japanese media. Virtually no one believed the assurances of the government and Prime Minister Naoto Kan personally that the decision to release him was made by the prosecutor's office on his own, and not under pressure from the PRC.

In particular, the Nikkei newspaper doubted that all legal procedures were duly followed when the Chinese citizen was released. Sankei said the incident "damaged Japan's sovereignty and national interests."
Mainichi called the prosecutor's decision "difficult to understand" and considered it "strange for the prosecutor's office" to justify their actions by the state of bilateral relations with another state.

According to the general opinion of the Japanese media, the Japanese leadership behaved short-sightedly, because it misunderstood Beijing's goal in the current diplomatic conflict. Back in mid-September, a prominent American analyst Richard Armitage, during his visit to Tokyo, met with the Secretary General of the Japanese Cabinet of Ministers, Yoshito Sengoku, and drew his attention to the fact that China, by aggravating relations, is testing Japan's position for strength. This was also indicated by the fact that Beijing behaved unexpectedly aggressively and took real and quite serious countermeasures, while earlier all cases of aggravation of the territorial dispute between China and Japan were usually limited to the exchange of a few tough statements. It was clear that the release of the Chinese citizen was not the only thing Beijing was trying to achieve.

And this version was confirmed. The PRC was not satisfied with the return of the captain of the trawler to its homeland and in the next statement of its Foreign Ministry demanded an apology and compensation from Japan, since the detention of the ship was "a gross encroachment on the territorial integrity of China." Moreover, Beijing refused to discuss the release of the four Fujita employees, which was expected in Tokyo in response to the return of the captain. Thus, the release of a Chinese citizen was indeed a diplomatic defeat for Japan, while China was pushing Tokyo to another one - the actual recognition of China's sovereignty over the disputed islands. Of course, the Japanese Foreign Ministry called China's demands unacceptable. Prime Minister Kang said that Japan would not discuss ownership of the archipelago with Beijing.

However, now that the conflict has once again passed into the waiting stage, the advantage is rather on the side of China, since Japan has voluntarily given up a serious lever of influence on the PRC.

The further development of events largely depends on the goals set by Beijing. If China really hopes to convince Tokyo to hand over Senkaku, then the pressure on its part will continue and a protracted crisis will ensue in Sino-Japanese relations. Getting out of it with minimal losses will require major diplomatic efforts from Tokyo. This may become almost the main foreign policy problem that Naoto Kan's cabinet will have to solve.

However, there are several more points of view on the goals of the PRC in this conflict. So, according to Mainichi, the aggravation of relations with Tokyo can be directed, first of all, to the domestic audience. Perhaps the Chinese leadership plays on the national feelings of the population of their country and thus strengthens its authority. In favor of this version is the scope of the protests, which were organized several times at the Japanese diplomatic missions throughout China.
Another opinion about the conflict was voiced by the above-mentioned Richard Armitage. According to him, Beijing's actions are "a warning to Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan regarding the disputed territories." With all these countries, China is engaged in territorial disputes, seeking control over the South China Sea. According to the analyst, Beijing is trying to demonstrate in advance its determination to resolve these issues in its favor.

Ivan Kargapoltsev, Beijing Yaroslav Makarov, Tokyo

Petrunina Zhanna Valeryanovna, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Head of the Department of History and Archiving, Komsomolsk-on-Amur State Technical University, Komsomolsk-on-Amur [email protected]

Sino-Japanese Relations in the Late 20th – Early 21st Centuries: From Confrontation to Interaction

Annotation. The article considers the main directions of political and economic cooperation between Japan and China at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries. Priority areas of cooperation and problems of interaction between countries at the present stage are identified. Key words: China, Japan, political cooperation, economic cooperation, Yasukuni, Taiwan issue, territorial disputes.

Modern international relations cannot be imagined without complex, multilateral integration processes between countries and regions. Interaction takes place in many spheres of public life - economic, political, cultural and others. At the same time, the interests of states reach a high level of interdependence. Despite the existing contradictions between the countries of the Asia-Pacific Region (APR) and the presence of hotbeds of tension here, in recent decades the APR has become one of the world centers of economic, political and cultural integration. The level of regional integration largely depends on the desire of the leading states of the Asia-Pacific region to interact with each other, on the goals that they set for themselves, being included in the integration processes. At the turn of the XX-XXI centuries. China has come to the fore in international relations. China occupies a special position in the Asia-Pacific region, where large dynamically developing subjects of international and economic policy are concentrated. Thanks to integration into many Asian-Pacific structures, China has gradually become a regional leader and is making a great contribution to the development of a harmonious world. According to the fair remark of Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences M.L. Titarenko, the growth of China's geopolitical influence makes the Chinese factor one of the key components of long-term political global and regional forecasting. The growth of China's influence in the international arena is taking place in parallel with the process of concentrating the "center of power" of the Asia-Pacific Region, which has moved from Europe. power in China was successively replaced by leaders of the second (Deng Xiaoping), third (Jiang Zemin), fourth (Hu Jintao) and fifth (Xi Jinping) generations of politicians. Each of the leaders pursued a course aimed at gaining China the status of a world power. At the present stage of regional international relations, its relations with Japan remain important for the PRC. In the 1990s Significant changes took place in Japanese-Chinese relations. The countries have signed a number of intergovernmental agreements regulating various areas of cooperation. In August 1997, at a meeting of the Society of Economic Like-minded People in Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister R. Hashimoto proposed a new foreign policy concept for the country, called "Eurasian diplomacy." The purpose of the proposed concept is to expand and strengthen Japan's ties with China, Russia and the CIS countries. With regard to the PRC, Japanese foreign policy was to be based on the "four new principles": mutual understanding, enhancing dialogue, expanding cooperation and joint activities to build a new world order. In an effort to secure post-Cold War peace in Asia, Japan at that time sought to establish a dialogue with its neighbor on security and defense issues. During the state visit of PRC President Jiang Zemin to Japan (1998), the parties expressed their unanimous opinion on the need to establish relations of friendly cooperation and partnership aimed at strengthening peace and economic development. The leaders of both countries adopted a Joint Declaration and a Joint Statement for the press on the strengthening of "Japanese-Chinese cooperation aimed at the 21st century." End of the 20th century was marked by the establishment of a political dialogue between China and Japan. In 1997-1998 three summits were held between the countries. However, political negotiations did not bring real results even at the beginning of the 21st century. gradually faded away. By 2005, tensions in Sino-Japanese relations had reached a climax. Acute contradictions between the countries were caused by the problem of the Yasukuni Temple in Tokyo, which for China remains a symbol of Japanese militarism and revanchism. Unfortunately, this issue has not yet been resolved. Beijing denounces and unsuccessfully presses the head of the Japanese government and the Japanese political elite to refuse annual ritual visits to the temple. A vivid illustration of the ongoing confrontation on this issue is the statement by the current leader of the PRC, Xi Jinping, about the impossibility of contacts with the leader of Japan, Shinzo Abe, during the 2014 Olympic Games held in Russian Sochi. The Taiwan issue also complicates relations between countries. In early 2005, Japan and the United States issued a joint declaration called a "peaceful solution" to the Taiwan problem. This declaration caused a negative reaction from the leadership of the PRC, which protested the interference in its internal affairs. China was engulfed in massive anti-Japanese demonstrations, accompanied by acts of vandalism. This situation posed a threat to the existing bilateral economic ties. By the second half of the 1990s. there has been a tendency for Japan to lose its leading economic position in East Asia. Under the conditions of China's economic growth, not only the interdependence of both countries from each other gradually increased, but also the rivalry between them for influence in the Asia-Pacific countries increased. In 2000-2004 Japanese-Chinese trade increased. This led to China becoming Japan's main trading partner, overtaking the US. However, since 2001 Japan's economic aid to China has begun to decline significantly. Japan was no longer willing to contribute to the growth of the military and economic power of its competitor. According to Japanese experts, providing economic assistance to China actually finances its military power, in addition, China itself provides support to many developing countries, and therefore there is no need to assist a country that can afford to provide assistance to others. Rivalry has intensified in the energy sector, in matters of gaining access to rich raw materials, on which both China and Japan depend. The resumption of dialogue between Japan and China became possible in 2006, when there was a change of leadership in Japan. The coming to power of Shinzo Abe in September 2006 marked an improvement in bilateral relations. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's first trip abroad was to China. The catalyst for the restoration of Japanese-Chinese relations was the financial loss of leading Japanese companies that invested in the Chinese economy. During two summits in 2006-2007. Tokyo and Beijing managed to reach an agreement on deepening cooperation and intention to build strategic mutually beneficial relations. In 2007, the volume of bilateral trade increased by 12%, reaching $ 236.6 billion. In turn, Japan ranked third among the states that have trade relations with China. In 2008, ten years later, Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Japan. The purpose of the visit was the desire of both sides to strengthen mutual trust, strengthen friendship, deepen cooperation, open up prospects for the future, comprehensively promote Sino-Japanese relations of strategic mutual benefit. Since the beginning of the XXI century. The leading economies of Northeast Asia (NEA) began to clearly show a desire to create a single trilateral energy ring, form a trilateral free trade zone, form a monetary union and introduce a single currency in this region. Despite the existing interstate contradictions and trade and economic disputes, the leaders of the PRC, Japan and the Republic of Korea understand that in the current economic conditions it is important to promote the development of integration processes, which actualizes many issues related to joint economic activity at the regional level. Moving in accordance with the chosen course, China is actively expanding economic ties not only with Japan, but also with South Korea. In 2013, Japan and South Korea ranked three times and third after the United States in terms of exported Chinese goods ($122.79 billion). and $76.06 billion respectively). During the same period, the Republic of Korea became the first among countries in the supply of goods to China (the amount amounted to $149.96 billion), Japanese imports to the Chinese market amounted to $133.2 billion. The leaders of the NEA countries justify such a policy by the desire to achieve stability in the monetary sphere, an attempt to protect the region's economies from the negative consequences of global economic crises, to get away from dollar dependence, and therefore compete with the United States in world markets. China, Japan and South Korea have a fairly high level of economic development and regional trade relations. Specialists from China, Japan and South Korea are conducting scientific research on the development of trilateral trade, investment cooperation, and the development of trilateral information and communication technologies. Cooperation between the NEA countries was formalized by the end of 2008, when the China-Japan-South Korea summit began its work. The economic cooperation of the NEA states makes it possible to increase the competitiveness of the region and will contribute to the solution of many political issues between these states. However, NEA does not have a clearly defined leading currency that could replace the dollar, which slows down the solution of this issue. For all that, the increase in competition between Beijing and Tokyo at the regional and global level contributes to the emergence of new problems and exacerbation of old contradictions in their relations, the key of which is Japan’s attempts to to allow the strengthening of the military and economic influence of the PRC in the Asia-Pacific region. No less difficult to resolve is the dispute over the ownership of the Diaoyu Islands (Senkaku) and the continental shelf in the East China Sea. The Japanese-Chinese territorial dispute creates the threat of a full-scale trade war between the parties. The United States, acting on the side of Tokyo in accordance with the bilateral security treaty, was also drawn into the confrontation between China and Japan. The conflict between China and Japan also affected investor sentiment. Shares of the largest Japanese automobile companies (eg, Nissan and Honda) in the Chinese market began to fall during trading. Reaching a compromise is hampered by the different versions put forward by the parties of the passage of the dividing line between the exclusive economic zones of the two countries. China is actively developing gas in these waters and refuses to acknowledge the existence of this line. According to the Chinese side, the sphere of control of the People's Republic of China extends to the border of the continental shelf, which is located near the southern Japanese prefecture of Okinawa. The interweaving of many factors (political differences, close economic cooperation, growing trade competition and competition for influence in East Asia) contributes to the strengthening of relations between Beijing and Tokyo. In addition, China is aware of the danger of a rapprochement between Japan and the United States, the likelihood of which increases with the aggravation of contradictions between East Asian neighbors.

Links to sources1.Titarenko M.L. Geopolitical significance of the Far East. Russia, China and other Asian countries. –M.: Monuments of historical thought, 2008.–624 p. 2. China and Japan: from Abe to Fukuda - URL: http://www.easttime.ru/analetic/3/8/521.html

[Accessed 03.02.2011]. 3. Foreign economic activity of China in January-October 2013 - URL: http://www.ved.gov.ru/exportcountries/cn/about_cn/ved_cn/ [Accessed 23.03.2014].

Ms. Zanna V. PetruninaDoctor of History, Professor, TheHead of the Department "History and archival", KomsomolskonAmur State Technical University, KomsomolskonAmur) [email protected] relations in the end of XX –beginning of XXI centuries.: from confrontation to interactionSummary:This article describes the main areas of political and economic cooperation between Japan and China at the turn of XX XXI centuries. Priority areas of cooperation and problems of interaction are revealed between countries at present. Keywords: China, Japan, political cooperation, economic cooperation, Yasukuni, the Taiwan issue, territorial disputes.

China and Japan, which have powerful economies and significant political weight, have turned into influential players in world politics at the beginning of the 21st century. The foreign policy aspirations of both countries, the nature of their interrelations have a significant impact on the international situation in Northeast Asia and the formation of the military-political and economic climate in the region. Modern relations between China and Japan are marked by many contradictions. There are a number of historical, political, international and regional issues that separate them. At the same time, both countries are satisfied with the peaceful coexistence that developed after the Second World War, show interest in the development of economic ties and jointly participate in the work of international organizations.

Post-war Sino-Japanese relations, although not warm, did not turn hostile either. While distrust and alienation in political matters persisted, trade and economic ties developed successfully and were supplemented by the growth of Japanese private investment in the Chinese economy. This model of bilateral relations, called in Japan "seikei bunri" ("separation of politics from economics"), and in China - "zheng len, jin zhe" ("cold in politics, hot in economics"), lasted until 1972. ., when there was a normalization of bilateral relations. At the same time, Japan had to sacrifice its many-sided ties with Taiwan, in particular, to break off official contacts with the island and reduce the volume of trade. The prospects for expanding contacts with China at that time seemed more important to Japanese business circles.

In October 1978, Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping visited Japan at the head of a government delegation. During the trip, the delegation members got acquainted with the work of modern Japanese enterprises, where advanced technologies were widely used. In the future, China used the experience of Japan in the modernization of its own economy.

In 1978, the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Peace and Friendship was signed, which made it possible in the next decade to expand and deepen bilateral contacts in politics, economics and culture. Both sides benefited from the promotion of Japanese goods and capital to the vast Chinese market. In 1979, during a visit to Beijing by Japanese Prime Minister M. Ohira, China was granted a loan in the amount of 350 billion yen to carry out economic reforms. Since then, Japan has become a long-term financial donor to China. The result of this was the expansion of the flow of Japanese private investment and the activation of Japanese corporations in the Chinese market.