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Ripe For Cooperation Or Rivalry? Commerce, Realpolitik, And War Memory In Contemporary Sino-Japanese Relations, Yinan He

Yinan He

Sino-Japanese political relations, fraught with disputes and tension during the Koizumi years, only began to recover after Abe came to power. This article investigates the driving forces shaping recent and future bilateral relations. Using evidence from the Koizumi era, I argue that 1) bilateral commercial links prove a weak stabilizing factor for political relations; 2) the current distribution of power between China and Japan does not dictate their strategic rivalry, but they may still treat each other as rivals if they perceive the danger of longterm power transition and mutual hostile intent; 3) the frequent flare-up of bilateral history disputes …