Author: Rumi Aoyama, Waseda University Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is visiting Beijing this week — the latest event in a gradual thawing of
Author: Rumi Aoyama, Waseda University
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is visiting Beijing this week — the latest event in a gradual thawing of Japan–China relations. The expected outcomes of Abe’s visit will continue his administration’s foreign policy rebalance between China and the United States. While China welcomes the opportunity for deeper relations with Japan, the United States may be less enthusiastic.
There seems to be broad consensus in Washington that the long-standing US engagement policy towards China has failed. The Trump administration is instead going down the road of disengagement and has been steadily imposing tariffs on Chinese goods. On 4 October 2018, US Vice President Mike Pence delivered a de facto declaration of cold war against China in his speech at the Hudson Institute, decrying China’s ‘predatory’ trade, ‘coercion’ and military ‘aggression’.
Members of both Japan’s government and populace share US concerns about China. A 2018 survey of approximately 3000 Japanese business people reports that 81.4 per cent of respondents are concerned with the political risks of doing business in China and 90.3 per cent perceive China as a threat to Japan.
But in a time when tensions between the United States and China are riding high, Japan is not fully committed to joining the US camp. The Abe administration is instead pursuing a more balanced foreign policy.
On the one hand, Tokyo is strengthening the Japan–US alliance and ‘promoting the networking of allies and friendly nations’ like Australia, India, Britain and France to counter China’s rise. On the other hand, Japan is striving to mend its relations with China by promoting economic cooperation, easing strategic mistrust and developing mechanisms to prevent clashes in the East China Sea.
As the latest in a series of joint efforts to improve bilateral ties, Abe arrived in Beijing for a three-day official visit on 25 October — timed to mark the 40th anniversary of a peace and friendship treaty between the two countries.
