A Study On The American Factors In Japan’s Trade Control Over China During The Cold War(1949-1972)

In 1947,when the cold war was taking shape in Europe,a fierce civil war broke out in mainland China.The evolution of the situation of the civil war between the kuomintang and the communist party and the development of the cold war made the United States readjust its post-war policy towards China and Japan.The U.S.policy towards China changed from "supporting Chiang kai-shek and anti-communist" to abandoning Chiang kai-shek’s regime and focusing on containing the Chinese communist party.The main deterrent has been limited trade controls to prevent the communist party’s growing military power.In addition,the "wedge strategy" between the communist party and the Soviet union was implemented in an attempt to divide China and the Soviet union.America’s policy towards Japan changed from the post-war democratic reform to support Japan’s economic revival,and let Japan join the western cold war alliance to participate in the trade control against China.After the Korean war,trade between China and Japan was suspended when Japan tightened trade controls against China.As the Korean War came to an end,rather than relax Japan’s trade control over China,under the leadership of the United States,it moved from "wartime control" to "normalized" control.On the one hand,the United States has drawn Japan into the multilateral east-west trade control system.On the other hand,it has also increased Japan’s trade control with China through bilateral agreements.The implementation of trade control with China has been used as a condition for receiving US economic aid.In this way,comparing with Western European countries,Japan,which urgently needed foreign investment to restore its national economy after the war,had to accept the United States’ requirements and established a stricter and comprehensive trade controls mechanism of China.However,this strict control which was affected by the differences between the United States and Europe in East-West trade and the development of Sino-Japanese trade was difficult to maintain.After the efforts of several Japanese governments,Japan achieved a "limited relaxation" of China’s trade control and Sino-Japanese trade has graduallydeveloped after a short twist.In the 1960’s,friendly trade and LT trade had become an important bond between China and Japan.Nevertheless,under the influence of the US-Japan-Taiwan Cold War system,Japan’s trade control over China could not completely disappear.It was not until the Nixon administration came to power to improve Sino-US relations that Japan was freed from the constraints of the Cold War system,and Sino-Japanese relations were also realized normalization,which led to establishment of the official Sino-Japanese trade channel,and Japan’s trade control over China eventually collapsed.The main part of this paper consists of three chapters.The first chapter describes that the change of the international situation led to the change of the U.S.policy towards Asia,and Japan which is under control of Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers established a comprehensive trade control system against China according to the instructions of the United States.The second chapter focuses on the efforts and attempts of the Japanese government to ease the trade control.Especially during the 1960 s,the cold war pattern had changed,thus the Japanese government took this opportunity to relax the trade control against China,but the level of the easing were restricted by the U.S.-Japan-Taiwan system.Chapter three discusses how Sato’s cabinet strengthened cooperation with the United States on regional affairs,which once again strengthened the level of trade control of China,and the Nixon administration’s detente with China finally led to the collapse of Japan’s trade control with China.