In 1972, China and Japan subscribed a joint declaration declaring the normalization of Sino-Japanese relation. After that, Sino-Japanese relation came into a friendly, peaceful and progressive stage. Exchanges between China and Japan were enhanced in different fields.
But after cold war Sino—Japanese relation entered a readjust stage. Many structural contradictions appeared because of China’s rise and Japan's strategy of great politic power accelerating. These contradictions lead to conflicts in bilateral relations, involving historic, political and security issues. The political relation of the two states hits an iceberg.
Generally speaking, there are several focuses of dispute between China and Japan, including the disputes over the WWII history, the Taiwan issue, disputes in the East China Sea, dispute on the sovereignty of Diaoyu Islands and Japan’s bid for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council.
The disputes over the WWII history are one of the earliest and most lasting conflicts between China and Japan. As is known to all, Japan launched an aggressive war and invaded China, which led to casualty of 35 million Chinese and most of them are civilian. According to official statistics, in the Nanjing Massacre, the Japanese troops killed at least 300,000 Chinese. But Japan’s government seldom apologized for the war, and did a series of things to cover up history. They even denied the war and the massacres committed by Japanese troops. For example, they juggled their schoolbooks, saying that they started the war to liberate peoples in East Asia. These behaviors arouse violent condemnations from its neighbor countries, including south Korea, the DPRK，China, etc.
The Taiwan issue is another earliest and most lasting dispute between the two states. China is strongly against Japan’s policy on Taiwan. After the cold war, the official intercourse between Japan and Taiwan has been continual and the administrative levels are rising. The economic tie between Taiwan and Japan is strengthened. And the military cooperation between the two sides has broken through the circumscription of the so-called security of Japan. All those things are intervention of China’s domestic affairs.
Then we come to the disputes in the East China Sea. The disputes are mainly about the delimitation of continental shelf of the East Sea and exclusive economic zone, but essentially they are natural resources disputes because this area is abundant in oil, gas, mine and piscatorial resources. China protests that the two countries should delimit the boundaries of continental shelf according to the principle of ＂continental nature extension＂while Japan holds the principle of ＂equidistance midline＂. The differences upon this issue have caused a lot of confrontations since 1982. And now the conflict has become more acute.
The next conflict is the dispute on the sovereignty of Diaoyu Islands. Diaoyu Islands are affiliated islands of Taiwan. After WW II, Japan surrendered unconditionally and is occupied by US army. Taiwan and its affiliated islands are given back to China. But because of the Civil war, China was unable to take control of Diaoyu islands. So they were under the trusteeship of US. In 1971, US army handed it over to Japan but denied Japan has the sovereignty of the islands. Then the dispute between China and Japan came into being and now is still unresolved. The conflict has become one of the sticking points of Sino-Japanese relation.
The last one and also is the latest one is about Japan’s bid for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council. Recent years Japan is trying hard to join in the UN Security Council. But many countries, especially Asian countries including China are strongly opposing Japan’s membership of the UNSC. China protests that a country which denies history and ignore feelings of neighbor countries can never fulfill the qualifications for membership of the UNSC. The conflict will continue as Japan takes further actions to join in the Council.
These five issues are the main focuses of dispute between China and Japan. Besides, there are other conflicts between the two sides. Although we have so many confrontations, we can seek common ground while reserving differences. The mainstream of Sino-Japanese relation is peace, cooperation and development because both states can gain more from peace and cooperation.
