A new dynamism in Sino-Japanese security relations

Japan's strategic use of foreign aid

Bibliographic Data

ID12207284
AuthorsTsukasa Takamine (University of Auckland, corresponding author)
Year2005
Volume18
Issue4
Pages439-461
Publication date2005-11-29
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Pacific Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0951-2748 • E-ISSN: 1470-1332
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09512740500338861
OpenAlexW2032196594
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited14

In November 2004 a Chinese nuclear submarine cruised into Japan's territorial waters near the Okinawa Islands. In response, the Japanese government dispatched several Japanese naval ships and planes to chase the Chinese submarine until it navigated into international waters. This event, which potentially could have become the first exchange of fire between Japan and China since the Second World War, illuminated increasingly problematic security relations between the two neighbouring countries in the twenty-first century. In fact, deterioration of Sino-Japanese security relations is not a recent phenomenon but has already been evident since the mid-1990s, when Japan imposed a series of economic sanctions on China. Between 1995 and 2000 Japan had suspended its foreign aid to China in protest against: China's nuclear weapons tests; China's large scale war game including the launch of missiles across the Taiwan Strait; and Chinese naval activities in disputed areas in the East China Sea. This article looks at Sino-Japanese security relations since the mid-1990s through three case studies of the aid sanctions imposed by Japan on China. It clarifies the domestic political and bureaucratic interests that motivated aid sanctions and determined the decision-making process leading to these sanctions. The article argues, that with certain politico-security interests, Japanese governments actively used foreign aid as a strategic instrument to counter provocative military actions by China in the East Asian region since the mid-1990s. Despite the limited influence that Japanese aid sanctions have actually had on Chinese military behaviour, Japan's strategic use of foreign aid has undeniably created a new dynamism in security relations between the two neighbouring great powers in Asia

Bureaucracy · Business · China · Dynamism · East Asia · Economic sanctions · Economics · Economy · Foreign policy · International relations · International trade · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sanctions · Sociology · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · International Development and Aid · Law · Socioeconomic Development in Asia

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