Abstract
China and South Korea are trapped in an “Asia’s Paradox” (antagonism despite interdependency) with Japan. The power transition in East Asia, territorial disputes and competing narratives of history have made a genuine reconciliation among these countries very difficult. If top political leaders are unable or unwilling to seek a rapprochement with their neighbors, then civil society (NGOs, scholars, and journalists) in East Asia must continue to nurture people-to-people friendship and understanding, prepare the groundwork of better bottom-up, grassroots ties, and patiently await a new dawn when more conciliatory statesmen appear.
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Notes
Aaron Friedberg, “Will Europe’s Past be Asia’s future?”, in Survival: Global Politics and Strategy, Vol. 42, No. 3, (2000).
See He Yinan “National Mythmaking and the Problems of History in Sino-Japanese Relations”, in Lam Peng Er (ed.), Japan’s Relations with China: Facing a Rising Power (London and New York: Routledge, 2006).
Sawa Takamitsu wrote: “Abe’s visit to Yasukuni was based on his self confidence in securing the strengthening of the Japan-US alliance thanks to near certainty about the resolution of the Futenma problem. … My guess as to the political intent behind Abe’s Yasukuni visit is his primary aim to further raise tensions in the Japan-China relationship. … Abe’s scenario must have been like this: Heightening Sino-Japanese tensions with his visit to Yasukuni would clear the way for him to follow such steps as approving the exercise of the right to collective self-defense under the existing war-renouncing Constitution and abolishing the three-point weapons-export ban. He would then wait for a right opportunity and move aggressively to amend the Constitution”. See Sawa Takamitsu, “Japan heading for darker days?”, Japan Times, accessed January 22, 2014.
For a notable effort to analyze Sino-Japanese relations beyond a narrow nationalistic viewpoint by a team of Chinese and Japanese scholars, see Daqing Yang, Jie Liu, Hiroshi Mitani and Andrew Gordon (eds), Toward a History Beyond Borders: Contentious Issues in Sino-Japanese Relations (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2012).
Gregory Rodgers, “The Hoi An Japanese bridge”, Southeast Asia Travel, available at: http://goseasia.about.com/od/hoi_an_vietnam/a/hoi-an-japanese-bridge.htm, accessed February 13, 2014.
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© 2015 Lam Peng Er
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Er, L.P. (2015). Antagonism Despite Interdependency: Whither China-Japan Relations?. In: Togo, K., Naidu, G.V.C. (eds) Building Confidence in East Asia: Maritime Conflicts, Interdependence and Asian Identity Thinking. Palgrave Pivot, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137504654_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137504654_10
Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, New York
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