Analysis Of Dilemma On Trilateral Cooperation Of China-Japan-ROK And Its Causes

The outbreak of the Asian financial crisis in 1997 made the East Asian states realize the importance of regional economic cooperation and also provided a motivation to trilateral cooperation among China,Japan and ROK.In 1999,the leaders of China,Japan and ROK held a breakfast meeting during the ASEAN Plus China,Japan and ROK Summit's informal meeting and this meant the trilateral cooperation among China,Japan and ROK was officially launched.As so far,the cooperation among China,Japan and ROK has gone through more than 20 years.It has already established a cooperation system with an independent trilateral leaders'summit as the core,21 ministerial meetings,senior officials'meetings and more than 70 working level mechanisms as the support.It has achieved fruitful accomplishments in economic and trade,political and diplomacy,environmental protection,social culture communication and other fields.However,with the deepening of cooperation,the trilateral cooperation among China,Japan and ROK is facing some unavoidable difficulties and challenges,which often put the cooperation in a dilemma.The economic interests that originally pushed trilateral cooperation not only have failed to make the "spillover" effect expected by neo-functionalism,but also face dilemmas in economic cooperation.From the construction of China-Japan-ROK Free Trade Area and the process of trilateral leaders'summit,it can be found that trilateral cooperation is often interrupted and stagnated,even though cooperation can bring expected benefits.The mechanism of the trilateral leaders' summit,which was scheduled to be held regularly every year,was interrupted frequently in 2005 and 2006 due to the Japanese Prime Minister's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine.In 2013 and 2014,it was also stalled due to the territorial disputes and historical perceptions among the three countries.The influence of the "THAAD" issue and the domestic politics of ROK led to the stagnation of the leaders' summit in 2016 and 2017.In the field of economic and trade,the negotiations on China-Japan-ROK Free Trade Area launched in November 2002,and have 16 rounds by 2019,but the results are very poor,and no agreement has been reached so far.Through the manifestation of trilateral cooperation dilemma among China,Japan and ROK,and on the basis of international cooperation theory,we try to explain the causes of the cooperation dilemma.Therefore,based on the realism theory of power perspective,liberalism of institutional perspective and constructivism of identity perspective,this paper puts forward the analytical framework of"power-institution-collective identity" to explain the causes of the trilateral cooperation dilemma among China,Japan and ROK.Specifically,trilateral cooperation is not only deeply affected by the disputes over the regional dominance,facing the difficulties in distribution and coordination of expected benefits of cooperation,and the conflicts between national goals and policies,but also due to the lack of international institutional construction,China,Japan and ROK's cooperation is frequently impacted by internal historical problems and external factors,showing vulnerability and sensitivity.Besides,the lack of common norms and collective identity leads China,Japan and ROK to a situation of less political mutual trust,and it is easily to fall into a security dilemma.Finally,according to causes of the dilemma,this paper puts forward some suggestions for the development of trilateral cooperation among China,Japan and ROK,so as to make the trilateral cooperation more stable in the future.