| The Sino-Japanese peace and friendship treaty was concluded on August 12, 1978. It had been negotiated for almost six years after diplomatic relations were established in 1972. This study examined the differences and similarities between Chinese and Japanese foreign policy strategies that formed the dynamic of the treaty negotiation. The study examined these factors in an effort to explain why the treaty was concluded so long after diplomatic normalization.; The study proposed two hypotheses that illustrated a significant difference and a significant similarity between the countries' strategies. The difference was that political concerns, such as national security, the Taiwan issue, and international influence (prestige), prevailed in China's foreign policy strategy; Japan, conversely, followed a strategy of diplomacy that separated politics from economics and emphasized economic concerns. The similarity was that China's strategy included modernization as an important secondary consideration; modernization had always been important to Japan's approach to Sino-Japanese relations.; This research resulted in several findings. First, China's foreign policy had four major, predominantly political, concerns: national security, the Taiwan issue, modernization, and international influence. In Japan's foreign policy, economic concerns predominated. Second, the Taiwan issue would be one of the most important concerns of China's foreign policy as long as Taiwan was not united with the PRC. Third, China's international influence was emphasized more heavily than other concerns in China's relations with Japan. Fourth, China's economic interest had been consistently in accord with Japan's in post-1949 Sino-Japanese relations. Finally, a variety of factors interactively determined the international relationships analyzed, especially bilateral negotiations. |
