The issues regarding Sino-Japanese relations: from economic interdependence to geopolitical tensions

Résumé du document

In the current political context, China and Japan are vying for Asian leadership. Furthermore, Sino-Japanese relations are beset by various geopolitical tensions, and all the issues of that confrontation are about influence and control. A paradoxical situation follows from this. How may one explain that the Sino-Japanese economic interdependence does not lead to certain pacification? In theory, as we may see from the example of Europe, economic interdependence should create good diplomatic relations and an appeasement of tensions. The Sino-Japanese case is a peculiar one as their economic interdependence is mixed with others geopolitical tensions. Thus in order to understand how and why spring rolls and sushi can't be blended in the same bowl, and that China and Japan can possibly cohabit in a complementary way but can't live together, it is important to explain the economic interdependence and the paradoxical effect of being both neighbors and world powers. After that, it will seem interesting to show that China-Japan is a confrontational area due to all the geopolitics issues which divide the two powers.

Extraits

[...] Anyway, the Sino-Japanese relation is at the moment first and foremost characterized by an increasing economic interdependence. For instance, in 1972 with the restoration of diplomatic relations, exchanges in the area China-Japan reached 1 billion of US dollars, in billions and in billions. Since 7 years, the growth development is constant and China represents more than 20% of the Japanese global foreign exchange market. Furthermore, in the both side, governments became aware of that interdependence and now they know that it is a vital economic relation and they keep increasing it. [...]

[...] In the 80's, era of the Triumphant Japan, the Land of the Rising Sun was affecting considerably the region thanks to its investments. However, Japan was knowing in the first 90's a period of recession meanwhile China was affirming conversely an exceptional dynamism. More, with the Asian crisis in 1997, we could strengthen the impression of a transfer of the decisive center for the evolution of the area, from Tokyo to Beijing. Nevertheless, Japan and China are nowadays two superpowers which, although economically independent, have to struggle for the leadership in Asia. [...]

[...] More, Sino-Japanese relations know various geopolitical tensions and all the issues of that confrontation are about influence and control. It follows from this a paradoxical situation: how is it possible to explain that the Sino-Japanese economic interdependence doesn't lead to certain pacification? In theory, as we can learn from Europe, economic interdependence should create good diplomatic relations and an appeasement of the tensions. The Sino-Japanese case is a particular one because of the fact that economic interdependence is mixed with others geopolitical tensions. [...]

[...] In both countries risks related with energy and energetic dependence have a predominant place in security strategies? For China, owning to its ideological isolation and since Middle-East is basically controlled by a “potential enemy” as the US, energetic dependence preoccupies a lot as well in geostrategic that in growth stability terms. In both countries oil importation comes basically from Africa and the Middle-East. On one hand these two areas are insecurity knots, since in lots of cases they are controlled by other powers, mainly the US. [...]

[...] But maritime distance between Japan and China is too small (350 nautical miles). Peking considers that, basing in legislation for the poor nations of the Pacific, its EEZ spreads out until the immediate surroundings of Okinawa (30 km). Tokyo considers this position unbearable and thinks that, basing in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the See, the maritime space has to be divided into equal parts. UN has to decide this year. A real cold war exists all around this issue. [...]