The Rise of China and Japan-China Relations: Economically Hot, Politically Cold and Culturally Ambivalent?

1. Japan-China relationship is one of the most complex relationships for China

China's perceptions of Japan:

• geographically close
• benefited culturally from China
• invader of China: hate and fear
• American ally in containing China
• source of Western ideas
• model of development
• source of economic aid, investment and technology

Japan's perceptions of China

• Culturally close to China
• Occupation and war in China – some sense of guilt?
• Fear China as an aggressor – territory disputes
• Competitor for resources – ocean and Russian gas
• Sense of superiority
• Export market

2. Current sources of conflicts and tensions

• War related issues – apologies, compensation, Chinese forced labor and ‘comfort women’, leftover poison gas, Yasukuni Shrine, text books
• Disputed territory
• Energy competition – oil fields, Russian gas
• Competition for diplomatic influence – UN Security Council
• Taiwan

Differences and ambivalence -> Misunderstanding and tensions

• Japan sees the Sinic (Chinese) civilization as a shared East Asian heritage (rather like Latin to Europe) whereas China sees itself as the source of many Japanese cultural beliefs and practices
• China's emphasis on history, i.e. learning from the past vs. Japan (or is it Prime Minister Koizumi) emphasizes the importance future, or future-looking

3. History Context Relevant to Understanding Japan-China Relations

China's historical sense of vulnerability – felt threatened, for a long period of time, and by powerful adversaries – e.g. historically Great Wall of China to stop invaders from the north, more recently Soviet Union, US, Japan, and India

China-Soviet Union tensions and conflicts during the late 1960s and armed border clashes in 1969 encouraged improvement of Chinese ties with Japan to counter-balance Soviet threat 1975 – Four Modernizations campaign (Zhou Enlai) – Japan seen as a potential source of aid, investment, technology and management

Chinese Communist Party internal struggles affected China-Japan relations

• late 1985 and late 1986 – Students and Workers anti-Japan demonstrations in Beijing, Xian, Chengdu against “Second Japanese Invasion”, due to:
• memories of past atrocities
• trade imbalances (import of cheaper Japanese products)
• alleged bad faith over the Baoshan iron and steel complex (manipulation of feasibility studies)
• insensitive behaviour of some Japanese politicians in public comments about the War
• Hu Yaoban fell in early 1987 – when Deng Xiaoping withdrew support for Hu and sided with Li Peng and Chen Yun)
• Post- 1989 June 4 Tiananmen Square Incident ( fall of Berlin Walls 1989) – China-Japan relations were again close as the West (G-7) imposed sanctions on and ostracized China
• 1992 - Emperor Akihito visited China; In 1998 – Jiang Zemin's visit to Japan (first by head of PRC) – soured rather than improved relations, as Jiang was unable to extract a written apology from Prime Minister Obuchi, and visit was poorly planned
• 1945 to 1998 – Japan adopted a “low posture” to China out of a sense of guilt - From 1995 – Japan has adopted a more hardline attitude to China, according to Ezra Vogel (2000);

Historical Cultural Contacts

• 2000 years of contact? –
• Tand Dynasty envoys
• Late Han Period (Go Kan – AD 25-220) – The Gold Seal - Kin-In (Fukuoka City Museum)
• Chinese influence on Japanese language (Kanji), Buddhism, material culture (pottery), architecture, and philosophy have been particularly strong

• 1896 – first group Chinese 13? students to Japan under the Qing Dynasty - Liu Hsueh Sheng (Ryu Gaku Sei)
• - 8,600 Chinese students arrived in Japan
• Between 1896 to 1937 – estimated 300,000 Chinese students in Japan (Kuo Mo-Jo, Chugokujin Nihon Ryugaku Shi, Saneto Keishu)

The reverse flow of knowledge and ideas from Japan to China was important to China's modernization in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic period. Many of the young Chinese intellectuals who came to Japan to acquire new ideas ended up playing critical roles in the development of Chinese nationalism, including Chinese conversion to socialism. Notable individuals included:

• Zhou Enlai – later Premier of China
• Lu Hsun 鲁迅 (周树人)– Sendai Medical College (now Tohoku University)
• Cheng Du Xiu (陈独秀) – founder of Chinese Communist Party; President, Peking University
• 郭沫若 Guo Moruo – - Kyushu Imperial University Medical School, married a Japanese woman; Chinese Communist Party Leader; President, Chinese Academy of Sciences
• Qiú Jin (秋瑾) – 1904-1906 - Shimoda Utako (founded Vernacular Journal, The Chinese Women's Journal); Chinese Revolutionary, faminist
• Hu han-min

1. Chinese students in Japan reacted against Japan
2. Japan offered a base for the Sun Yat-sen-led republican revolution

Chinese-Japanese Hybridity

• The noted Chinese literary figure and poet, the child of a Chinese (Cantonese merchant) father and Japanese mother (father's maid), later became a priest
• Su Manshu 苏曼殊 - 1903 - (Tatung School, Yokohama, Seijo Gakko, Waseda University)
• Japanese-Chinese marriages
• War Orphans ?

Aberrations in China-Japan Relations – 1894-1945 (“50 years that overshadowed 200”)

• 1931 – Kwantung Army occupied Manchuria – Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere – Manchukuo (Puyi)
• 1935 – Japan occupied parts of Chahar and Hobei
• 1937 – full-scale invasion
• 1938 – occupied Nationalist capital Nanjing
• 1937-1945 – Eight Years of War of Resistance (Kangzhan)
• (10 to 20 million Chinese died?)

On-going Historical Disputes

• Islands (Diaoyutai or Senkaku )

The War and Apologies

• China (and other Asian) disappointment over choice of words – “regret”, “remorse”, “contrition”, rather than strait apologies
• Japan's view that it has apologized sufficiently
• Comparison with Germany – Unlike Germany, there were not ready and acceptable “scapegoat”, i.e. Nazism and Hitler; Also Post-War Germany had a clean break with the past, in contrast many of the pre-War interests, institutions and symbols remain in Japan
• The sacrosanct position of the Emperor (controversy about Emperor Hirohito's responsibility)

Yasukuni Shrine

• Attempts at “cultural explanation” by Japanese leaders – i.e. in Shinto beliefs all dead are pardoned regardless of they did when alive?
• Display and interpretation of the War at the shrine
• Issue of State (as represented by politicians) and religion (shrine as a Shito place of worship)

China's Rise

Since 1979, economy averages 9% to 10% growth per year, i.e. 100% or doubling GNP every 10 years, superpower by 2025 – unprecedented in modern economic history (it took the Us almost 25 years in the 19th century, during its rapid industrialization, to double its GNP

Some suggest that China's current achievements can rival that of its Han Dynasty and is expected to out-perform its past glories

Chinese Nationalism – Aggrieved Nationalism

Chinese nationalism is a form of “reactive nationalism” that appeared in the late nineteenth century a relatively recent phenomenon – arose in reaction to the incursions of foreign imperialism, staring with the Opium War of 1840-1842

• 1557 – Portugal colonized Macao
• 1842 -Treaty of Najing (ceded Hong Kong to Britain in perpetuity)
• 1894-1895 - Sino-Japanese War ended with Treaty of Shimonoseki – ceded to Japan in perpetuity Taiwan; Penghu (Pescadore Islands), Liaodong Peninsula in Chinese Manchuria; ended Chinese influence in Korea
• loss of Liaodong Peninsula, Manchuria, Ryukyu Islands (Diaoyutai or Senkaku), Taiwan
• 1900 – Boxer Rebellion – against foreign powers’ encroachments on China and corrupt Qing Dynasty
• 1911 – Republican Revolution - Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925)
• 1919 May Fourth Movement(五四運動 )
• Led by Chinese intelligentsia – anti-Foreigners (Japan and West)
• 1934 - Chinese National Antem – “The March of the Volunteers" (义勇军进行曲) composed by Nie Er (聂耳 – died swimming off a beach near Yokohama !! On the way to Russia) to unite Chinese against Japanese invasion
• 1949 – Chairman Mao proclaimed “The Chinese People had finally stood up”

Nationalism has become important again for China

• China in search of an overarching ideology following the erosion of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism to continue the Chinese Communist Party's claim of legitimacy (Mandate of Heaven) and as possessor of special truths and insights

The Future

Schizophrenic situation – popularity of Japanese fashion, movies, etc in China – antipathy towards Japan

China-Japan Relations?

International Political Factors

• A multi-polar world would help to calm China against fear of US–led hegemony and containment of China (US-Japan Alliance)
• One China Policy central to Chinese concerns – perceived ambiguity on the part of Japan would antagonize Beijing

Domestic Political Factors

• a centralist government has at least steered a national response to Japan; had decentralization occur, more diverse regional, sectorial, and bureaucratic reactions would dominant (example – use of Internet in Anti-Japanese demonstrations in April 2005 was getting out of control by Chinese authorities)

Japan's Identities

• Is Japan part of Asia? (Fukuzawa Yuichi-)
• The Greater Co-Prosperity Sphere was presented as helping Asian countries to be liberated from Western colonial oppression
• Continuing sense of superiority?

Globalization's Impact

• Daliang – Japan Call Center

Post Cold War - Clash of Civilization?

• Is Japanese Civilization a Unique Civilization for part of the Chinese Civilization?

Some Solutions?

• China-Japan-Korea jointly textbooks
• curtail visits to Yasukuni Shrine or a new national memorial
• Promote two-way Tourism
• Education ties
• Universities
• Study Tours
• Cultural Exchanges
• Joint Film Productions (Silk Road, A Son of the Good Earth)
• Cultural exchanges, museum exhibitions
• performances
• Popular Culture
• Movies
• Music
• Fashion

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