The East Asian reset

The East Asian reset

News:

1. Pallavi Aiyar, a Young Global Leader with the World Economic Forum, observes that China-Japan relations which are usually tensed have being reset and on an upswing.

Important News:

2. Recently, China is trying to improve its relation with India as well as Japan
3. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to Japan on May 2018 is significant because of two reasons:

• It was the Premier’s first visit to Japan since assuming office five years ago.
• It was the first top-level bilateral visit after the Senkaku and Diaoyu Island disputes in the East China Sea of 2012 turned their relations sour.

4. During the visit,

• Chinese Premier met the Japanese Emperor Akihito.
• Signed a deal with Japan to deliver a pair of ibises since Japan’s last wild crested ibis dies in 2003

5. Recent developments in China-Japan relations:

• In September 2017, Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe became the first Japanese leader in 15 years to attend the Chinese Embassy’s annual National Day celebrations in Tokyo.
• Both Prime Ministers met on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam.
• Recently there is resumption of high level economic dialogue after eight years.
• China’s State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Japan in April 2018.
• In early May 2018, the PM of Japan called up the Chinese PM to discuss the new developments taking place in the Korean Peninsula.This was the first phone call ever between the two leaders.

6. Issues between China and Japan:

• China is still bitter with Japan’s invasion of China before the Second World War. China feels Japan has not yet paid for its brutality.
• After the Second World War, Japan became an ally of USA, who China considers as its rival.
• Rival claims over the Senkaku-Diaoyu islands of the East China Sea.
• Both the countries compete for increasing their influence in the region, especially in Southeast Asia which is emerging as a field for both the countries to compete.
• China has eclipsed Japan as a global geostrategic player, taking the role onto itself.

7. Complementarity of China-Japan ties:

• Both China and Japan are economically intertwined.
• Japan was a major contributor to China’s rise as an economic superpower. From a backward agrarian economy China transformed into a global manufacturing powerhouse.
• According to The Japan External Trade Organisation, China-Japan trade stands at about $350 billion (by comparison, India-China trade is $84.44 billion).
• Japan led Asian Development Bank is exploring co-financing projects with China led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

8. According to Shin Kawashima, a China scholar at the University of Tokyo, the following are the reasons behind Japan’s hand of friendship to China:

• An unpredictable policies of U.S:

(i)Trump’s America First Policy and tariffs slapped on $60 billion worth of Chinese products have impacted Japan.

(ii)Japan, an ally of U.S did not get any exemption from new duties on steel and aluminium.

(iii)US has been going back on many of its major international commitments.

(iv)US policy towards Japan and the wider region has increasingly become “fragile and vague”

Thus, Japan needs to engage with China in an unbiased manner till it is sure of USA’s  Intentions.    

• North Korea:

(i)Japan hopes that China would use its influence in North Korea to highlight Japan’s concerns.

(ii)Japan feels that it is not playing as significant a role as China, in the events which are taking place in its own neighbourhood. This is eclipsing Japan’s hopes of becoming an Influential regional player.

(iii)Japan is worried that in an effort to improve ties with Korea, USA might forget about  the 12 Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea in the 1970’s and ‘80s who still remain unaccounted for.

• Business interests:

The Japanese business groups who have invested in China have sometimes suffered due to tension in ties. These groups have always wanted stronger bilateral ties.

9. Reasons behind China’s hand of friendship to Japan:

• Japan asking for China’s support in North Korea enhances China’s International clout.
• In the backdrop of the simmering trade war with US and China’s trade ties with Japan would be economically beneficial.
• China is trying to get Japan to go along with China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Japan had initially hesitated but said it would join China’s BRI as long as the infrastructure projects were open, transparent, fair and economically feasible.

10. The Political Analyst, Pallavi Aiyar, feels the present China-Japan alignment is a tactical and provisional affair born out of geopolitical compulsions. This thaw in ties is not long-term and strategic. It is more of a pause in the tensed relations rather than resolution of conflict.Just like in the case of India-China reset, it would only be temporarily beneficial to both countries as the underlying issues have not yet been solved.