The Geopolitical Analysis Of The Japanese Policy Towards China

After the end of cold war, the world geopolitical environment has changed enormously. Geopolitics has been an international hot topic, studying the problems of governmental strategy from the perspective of geopolitics, and has become a hot issue home and abroad. China and Japan are both constituents of the East-Asian geopolitical pattern and naturally become regional rivals, and the relationship between China and Japan is certainly influenced and restricted by geopolitical factors. For over two thousand years, geopolitical concern has been at the root of the caprice of Japanese government in its attitude towards China, and geopolitical factors play a key role in constituting and implementing its strategy towards China.The present thesis mainly studies the effect and influence of geopolitical factors of the Japanese government in constituting and implementing the strategies towards China with the prospect of forecasting the future tendency of Japanese policies towards China. This thesis is organized into four chapters:Chapter 1 introduces the connotative definition of geopolitics. In the light of this definition, the history and actuality of western geopolitics are reviewed, together with the influences of geopolitics on international politics. Also included in this chapter are the relevant studies on Chinese geopolitics. The conception of geopolitics has enjoyed a long history in China, while the systematic study has not been initiated until the 1980s. The study of Sino-Japanese relationship from the perspective of geopolitics has already become an important subject in the Chinese academic circle.Chapter 2 mainly analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of geopolitical situation in China and Japan, and introduces the development and changes of Sino-Japanese geopolitical relationship and the conflict of geopolitical interests between these two countries. Based on the above explanation, this thesis points out that the admiration and fear for its neighbor—the mainland of China constitute the contradictory attitude of Japan, which is far from being a chance.Chapter 3 makes up the bulk of the present thesis. This chapter explores and analyzes geopolitics which influences and restricts the implementation of Japanese policy towards China by the means of macroscopic geopolitical theories, and microcosmic geopolitical factors such as geographical factors, political factors, economical factors, cultural factors, and other social factors and so on. The influence of geopolitical factors on the policies of Japan to China is not a single one but interact with each other to exert a concerted influence. Through the above analyses, the thesis explains that different geopolitical factors have different influences on the policies of Japan towards China and that the effects of these geopolitical factors play different roles in different stages from various perspectives.Chapter 4 analyzes and clarifies the contradictory mind (i.e. double-dealing of value and misgivings and guard) of Japanese strategies towards China from the perspective of geopolitics on the basis of expatiation made in the above three chapters. Moreover, the reality of the more and more uncompromising policy of Japan towards China has been analyzed and explored in details. At last, this thesis forecasts tentatively the future tendency of Sino-Japanese relationship through the above analyses.The present study is supposed to systematically analyze Japanese policies towards China by the application of material geopolitical factors in order to make clear that the constituting and implementing the strategies of Japanese government towards China is primarily out of geopolitical consideration. Furthermore, this study puts forwards that Japanese strategies towards China is a sticking point for the future orientation of the Sino-Japanese relationship. Therefore, if Japan envisages China with a new geopolitical, economic and cultural perspective based on interactive national interests in a global age, it is well-founded for us to believe that friendly Sino-Japanese cooperation will be deepened and that Sino-Japanese relationship will develop towards a benign, fine direction and the Chinese and Japanese peoples will enjoy an amiable relationship for generations.