The Perils of Proximity: China-Japan Security Relations

Given the security dilemma and the history issue, China-Japan relations worsened from 1998 to 2006, apparently because of Jiang Zemin's visit to Japan in 1998, Koizumi's repeated visits to the Yasukuni Shrine during his term as prime minister (2001-06), and Japan's attempt to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. [...]the military regards the East China Sea as its strategic buffer and opposes concessions to Japan that would restrict PLAN's [PLA Navy] freedom of movementâ[euro] (p. 143), while the MFA cannot take the initiative for interagency discussions though President Hu Jintao has moved the issue to the diplomatic channel. On the Japanese side, the combination of indecisive civilian leadership (except for Koizumi) and intense regulation of the SDF make the military's viewpoint under-represented in decision making, and hinder policy makers from acquiring updated information about other countries' military situations and decision-making processes (pp. 176-177).