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Securitization of the “History Issue” and Its Influences on Sino-Japanese Security Relationship in the New Century

Published:2018-06-14 Published:2018-06-14   Author:Wang Shuming   [Small] [Middle] [Big] [More]

Since the beginning of the 21st century, the “history issue” between China and Japan has been “securitized” to a great extent. It is embedded in the structure of Sino-Japanese relationship as an independent element and has an enormous negative impact upon the development of Sino-Japanese security relationship in three dimensions: identity-ontological security, national strategy, and threat perception. First of all, a fissure exists between Chinese identity as a victim and Japanese sense of superiority as well as identity as a victim, and therefore, both sides see the other as the biggest “other”. Secondly, while China attempts to make use of the Anti-Japanese War spirit of shedding humiliation and emerging stronger to realize the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation and peaceful development, the Japanese new conservatives take advantage of the Sino-Japanese vicious cycle to realize the “normal country” dream of revising constitution and building a strong military via “casting off history” and “exploiting history.” Thirdly, growing historical revisionism in Japan has fueled China’s concern about the remilitarization of Japan, while Japan is worried about the Chinese revenging emotions and willingness to “settle account” with Japan after China’s rejuvenation. In light of the enormous risks associated with the “war of history” and the difficulty of genuine reconciliation in the near term, China and Japan should meet each other half way and reduce the level of “securitization” of the “history issue.”

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