Sino-Japanese Relations Since the 1972 Normalization: Prospects for Conflict Resolution and Regional Hegemonry
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University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Supervised Undergraduate Student Research Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects and Creative Work Fall 12-2005 Sino-Japanese Relations since the 1972 Normalization: Prospects for conflict Resolution and Regional Hegemonry Tracy Lynn Masuda University of Tennessee - Knoxville Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_chanhonoproj Recommended Citation Masuda, Tracy Lynn, "Sino-Japanese Relations since the 1972 Normalization: Prospects for conflict Resolution and Regional Hegemonry" (2005). Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_chanhonoproj/883 This is brought to you for free and open access by the Supervised Undergraduate Student Research and Creative Work at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Sino-Japanese Relations 1 Running Head: SINO-JAPANESE RELATIONS Sino-Japanese Relations since the 1972 Normalization: Prospects for Conflict Resolution and Regional Hegemony Tracy Masuda Language and World Business with Japanese Concentration Senior Honors Project Dr. Hidetoshi Hashimoto Department of Political Science December 9, 2005 Sino-Japanese Relations 2 Abstract The purpose of this paper is to examine the political, economic, and social relationships between China and Japan following the formal normalization of these relations in 1972 and subsequent decay during the past decade. Current issues such as Japan's foiled U.N. Security Council bid, underwater drilling rights, Taiwan, and growing nationalism within both countries are discussed. The primary findings in this paper argue that Sino-Japanese relations are in a precarious state and can be repaired only if Japan issues an all-encompassing formal reparation for the actions of its imperial army on its Asian neighbors during the 1930s and 1940s. After this last obstacle has been eradicated, China will finally fully embrace the possibility of an enhanced and mutually beneficial Sino Japanese relationship. Sino-Japanese Relations 3 Sino-Japanese Relations since the 1972 Normalization: Prospects for Conflict Resolution and Regional Hegemony In the past decade, the diplomatic relationship between China and Japan has been increasingly agitated by controversies initiated by both sides in an indirect race for regional hegemony in Asia. While major conflict has been avoided so far, if both nations continue to neglect the causes of these issues of dispute, the region could find itself in dire straights in the coming decades. While at times they cooperate and a shared occupancy of the seat of power on the Asian stage seems plausible, as was especially true in the 1970s and 1980s, the relationship between the two nations has recently become more fragile due to conflicts ranging from the future of Taiwan to emerging strong nationalistic sentiments in both countries. The purpose of this paper is to examine the historical, economical, and political events and issues that have affected Sino-Japanese relations since the normalization of relations in 1972, and to analyze these effects on current and future interaction. Historical Background of Normalization In 1931 the Japanese occupied Manchuria, the first of their many conquests in Asia. By 1937, the Japanese imperial army had overpowered much of China including Chahar, Hopeh, Peking, Shanghai, and Nanking. Most infamous of these invasions was the capture of Nanking. After seizure of the city in December Sino-Japanese Relations 4 1937, the Japanese army began a massacre of the population which included civilian men, women, and children. Estimates of the death toll range from 250,000 to 350,000 persons (Chang, 1997). This number far exceeds the casualties sustained in both Nagasaki and Hiroshima combined. In addition to execution, there was widespread torture and rape of the Chinese civilians during the weeks of the massacre. During Japan's 15-year military occupation of various Asian countries, an estimated 10-30 million people including POWs and forced laborers, died of a myriad of causes ranging from execution to starvation (Chang, 1997). Another major atrocity by Japan against its Asian neighbors involves the imperial military's use of sex slaves, commonly referred to as comfort women, during the occupation. Approximately 200,000 women from countries such as China, Philippines, Malaysia, and Korea, were manipulated or kidnapped by the Japanese and forcibly raped countless times (Brook, 2001). After the Japanese surrender during WWII, many of these women were killed or abandoned and subsequently died of starvation. The experiences of the surviving women were almost entirely overlooked by historians until the 1990s when some women began to come forward with their stories (Brook, 2001). In the years following WWII, relations between Japan and China were almost nonexistent. In the early 1970s, several developed nations began endeavors to establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China in Beijing. On February Sino-Japanese Relations 5 21, 1972 US President Richard Nixon embarked on his weeklong "ice-breaking" visit to the PRC ("Backgrounder," 2002). Japan quickly followed suit that same year by sending Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei to China to discuss terms of normalization with Mao Tse-tung and Chou En-Lai (Kawashima, 2003). The fruits of this historic meeting were manifested in the September 29 signing of the 1972 Sino-Japanese Joint Statement which officially normalized Sino-Japanese relations (Kim, 1975). The statement also made provisions for the eventual signing of an official peace treaty between China and Japan (Kawashima, 2003). At this time, Japan "expressed regret for the sufferings inflicted on China before 1945" (Beasley, 2000, p. 241). China, in tum, relinquished "any claim to a war indemnity" (Beasley, 2000, p. 242). China's conditions for the Sino Japanese reconciliation also called for the "recognition of the People's Republic as the sole legal government of China, acceptance of Taiwan as an inalienable part of the territory of the People's Republic, and abrogation of Japan's peace treaty with the Nationalists" (Hsiao, 1974, p. 721). As a result, any formal recognition or contract by Japan in regard to Taiwan as an entity separate from China was deemed null. Following the formal normalization of relations, the remainder of Sino Japanese relations throughout the 1970s was focused on cultivating trade between the two nations as well as developing bilateral administrative arrangements which dealt with a variety of issues such as civil aviation and fisheries (Kim, 1975). In Sino-Japanese Relations 6 August of 1978, after years of negotiations and the death of Mao Tse-tung, an official peace treaty, the Sino-Japanese Peace and Friendship Treaty, was approved. Most of the negotiations concerning the treaty dealt with China's insistence on including an anti-hegemony clause. Japan was wary of such inclusion because of the implications it would have on relations with Moscow, who would no doubt interpret it as being directed toward the Soviet Union. However a compromise was made after both parties agreed on a diluted version of the anti-hegemony clause (Kim, 1975). This treaty and similar agreements between the two countries made at this time were ambitious in their provisions for a strong and prosperous China/Japan relationship. For example, a six-year trade agreement signed in February of 1978 made provisions for impressive exchanges of Chinese oil and Japanese machinery. However, China eventually failed to meet the lofty petroleum quotas (Wang, 1993). This pattern of initial high-ceiling expectations and later disappointment can be transposed from the trade sector to diplomatic bilateral relations on the whole from the honeymoon of normalization in the 1970s and 1980s and subsequent breakdown during the 1990s. Nature of Relationship during the 1980s The 1980s were marked by amplification of bilateral contact between the two nations. Although not at the astronomical rate initially predicted in the 1970s, trade boomed. While bilateral trade was just over a billion dollars in the Sino-Japanese Relations 7 early 1970s, in 1981 it had reached almost ten billion (Wang, 1993). By the early 1980s, Japan was China's largest source of credit, contributing almost fifteen billion US dollars. Trade during this time also became diversified from the initial patterns of Chinese raw energy for Japanese machinery (Wang 1993). Fluctuating Public Opinion within China and Japan Many people, although not blind to the past, were optimistic about the future of the increasingly interconnected nations. They viewed the formal normalization of 1972 as the first step of a close relationship between the Asian nations. Some scholars even proposed the formation of a bond like the one shared by Germany and France. Various public opinion polls in both countries illustrate the attitudes of the masses in the two nations. While in 1980, 79% of Japanese polled harbored friendly feelings toward China, after the June 1989 Tiananmen Square catastrophe during which student protestors were violently suppressed under orders from the Chinese government, 40% of Japanese responded that they now looked upon their Asian neighbor in an unfriendly manner (Kawashima, 2003). Trends in Relations during