http://www.bjreview.com AUGUST 29, 2019 BEIJING REVIEW 21
WORLD
Copyedited by Rebeca Toledo
Comments to [email protected]Abe described his approach to diplomacy—
seeking partnership with countries that share
similar values—as taking a bird’s eye view of
the world. His foreign policy, similar to his value-
oriented diplomacy during his first term in
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Japan showed a mixed attitude toward the
Belt and Road Initiative, while proposing com-
peting plans. In May 2015, the Japanese Cabinet
announced that it would invest $110 billion in
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meet the huge capital demand for infrastruc-
ture construction in the region. This was likely
to launch a capital race with China.
In June of the same year, Japan did not
participate in the signing of an agreement that
provided the legal framework for the multilat-
eral Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB),
passing up the opportunity to become a found-
ing member. At the same time, Japan and the
U.S. were actively promoting the Trans-Pacific
Partnership negotiations to economically
contain countries such as China. Interestingly
enough, only two years later, Japan had to
change its policy toward the Belt and Road
Initiative.
This shift was not merely caused by the
current international chaos. A decisive factor is
that the initiative is not a strategy seeking hege-
mony or confrontation; instead, it is a win-win
concept of cooperation in line with the current
global trend. The initiative is also beneficial to
Japan’s long-held strategy of opening up new
markets. It is this realization that has led Japan
to adjust its policy.
In April 2018, the Fourth China-Japan High-
Level Economic Dialogue reached consensus
on calling for outcomes on Belt and Road coop-
eration and promoting third-party cooperation
between the two countries. In May, Chinese
Premier Li Keqiang attended the Seventh Japan-
China-ROK Trilateral Summit, coupling it with an
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the Memorandum on China-Japan Cooperation
in the Third-Party Market.
The improvement in China-Japan relations
has provided timely benefits to Japan as the
scale of bilateral trade has rebounded rapidly.
Trade volume between the two countries was
33.34 trillion yen ($312.9 billion) in 2017, a
record high, according to statistics provided by
Japan’s Ministry of Finance.
Against this backdrop, Abe’s perception
of China has also changed. When he attended
a ceremony marking China’s National Day in
2017 at the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo hosted
by Chinese Ambassador to Japan Cheng
Yonghua, he expressed three views in his
speech. Cooperation between Japan and China
is not only important to both countries, but also
indispensable to peace and prosperity in Asia
and even the world, according to Abe. He said
he firmly believes that cooperation in solving
regional and global issues and making joint
contributions to the international community
will help build a brand new future in China-Japan
relations. And he said that Japan is willing to
make efforts to promote the development of
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between Japan and China.
Subsequently, before his visit to China in
2018, Abe said that he expected to expand the
exchanges between the two peoples in vari-
ous fields and lift bilateral relations to “a new
stage” with the support of high level exchanges.
Japanese media also commented that under
the countries’ two leaders, bilateral relations are
gaining momentum, seeking an era that goes
from competition to collaboration. During his
visit last October, Abe put forward his proposal
of “switching from competition to collabora-
tion.” The fact is that China never showed any
intention of competing with Japan. So Abe’s
suggestion was more of a signal marking a shift
in his country’s stance toward China.Neighbors forever
This year, China-Japan relations have continued
to warm up. During their talks in Osaka, Xi and
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neighbors.” Xi stressed that the two sides should
always abide by the principles set forth in the
four political documents signed between China
and Japan, implement the political consensusthat they are cooperative partners and not a
threat to each other, enhance mutual trust, and
push China-Japan relations along the right track
of peace, friendship and cooperation.
Normally, relations between countries are
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while relations between neighboring countries
are an objective reality. The positioning of apo-
litical eternal neighbors is based on a shared
culture since good-neighborliness is one of
the core values in Confucianism. However,
some Western values tend to choose beggar-
thy-neighbor policies in international relations.
In Asian culture, the emphasis on neighbors
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peace and resolve differences through peace-
ful means. This will continue to be the bottom
line for the future development of China-Japan
relations.
The most important issue facing relations
will be how to build bilateral ties in line with the
consensus of the two leaders and meet the
requirements of the new era. China and Japan
should give full play to the foundation of Asian
civilization, get rid of the obsolete thinking
mode of power competition and interest gam-
ing, and strive to build an equal and win-win
world through cooperation. This should also be
the guiding ideology of future China-Japan stra-
tegic dialogue. QXINHUAVisitors select tea products at a Japanese booth during a tea expo held in Rizhao in Shandong Province on July 26