Sino-Japanese Relations: Citizens Taking Charge Despite Government Efforts
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At time when leaders in China and Japan were expecting to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the normalization of relations between the two states with a series of celebrations across both countries, instead leaders in both states are working to contain the latest nationalist flare-ups over “history issues” and the territorial dispute over the uninhabited Senkaku or Diaoyu islands.
One of the most interesting sub-plots about the most recent deterioration of Sino-Japanese relations is how it is happening despite the strong actions of both national governments. In this way, the recent crisis in Sino-Japanese relations is quite unlike the challenge Tokyo is facing with neighbors South Korea and Russia, and Beijing is facing with the Philippines and Vietnam. In those cases, state leaders are pursuing an intentionally provocative and nationalist agenda that is pushing relations toward a crisis. In the case of Sino-Japanese relations, policymakers in both governments are working to keep a lid on tensions, using state power to hinder the inflammatory rhetoric and actions of their citizens.
The underlying importance of positive Sino-Japanese relations for both sides explains why leaders are willing to expend political capital to calm the tension despite the popularity of nationalist rhetoric. China is Japan’s largest trading partner and an important source of corporate profit for Japanese firms. Enhanced cooperation with China in the economic sphere is central to Japanese government strategies for further economic growth, such as negotiations over stronger intellectual property protection for Japanese patents in China, partnerships on civilian nuclear power security and development of cleaner energy sources. Such initiatives are scuttled by the rise in nationalist tensions as seen in previous crisis periods in Sino-Japanese relations. More broadly, regional stability is essential for both states in order to allow them to focus on economic growth strategies at a difficult time in the world economy. Japan and China together constitute over three quarters of economic output in East Asia and 15 percent of the world economy [1].
Current versus Past Crises
In the past seven years, there have been three major crisis points in Sino-Japanese relations: spring 2005, fall 2010, and now this summer. All of them have been related to so-called “history issues”—such as perceived shortcomings in apologies by Japan for its wartime conduct, textbook portrayals of Japan’s wartime conduct and visits by Japanese politicians to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine. Additionally, the latest two crises have been sparked by the territorial dispute over the Diaoyu island chain