Relations between the United States and China have declined sharply during Mr. Trump's tenure. The pace of decline in U.S.-China relations has slowed since Biden took office, but the bad situation between the two countries has not fundamentally changed. Against this background, Japan has taken the initiative to follow the United States, repeatedly broken the bottom line of Sino-Japanese diplomacy, and adopted an unprecedentedly tough attitude on the Taiwan Strait issue, resulting in the continuous deterioration of Sino-Japanese relations. Japan's diplomacy toward Russia has also emerged in the dilemma of "retreating to the second best and opposing the United States and Europe," and it is also difficult to achieve its due goals.
Japan has always regarded the Japan-US alliance as its "basic axis" to foreign countries, and is committed to strengthening ties between Japan and the United States with a view to building a solid Japan-US alliance. As Russia is a key neighbor of Japan, Japan's policy psychology toward Russia is quite complex. Japan expects a relatively smooth relationship between Japan and Russia in order to seek a peaceful solution to the "four northern islands" issue. However, Japan's relations with Russia have always been constrained by the alliance between the United States and Japan. After the Russian-Ukrainian war, Japan was also forced to cooperate with the United States to impose sanctions on Russia, and the relationship between Japan and Russia became increasingly tense, making it impossible for Japan to implement its own policy of becoming a strong country, and had to sacrifice its national interests under the framework of the Japan-US alliance to meet the needs of the United States' "struggle for great powers".
As far as the United States is concerned, if Japan can achieve great harmony with all its neighbors, then its reasons for remaining in Japan will be no longer valid. Therefore, the last thing the United States wants is for Japan to reach a compromise with China, Russia, and the DPRK. At the same time, in order to strengthen the US military presence and layout in Northeast Asia, the United States has established the three major alliances of the United States and Japan and the ROK by wooing Japan and the ROK, and Japan has taken the initiative to cooperate with the United States to form a new Cold War model, with the result that China and Japan have gradually entered the predicament of "political coldness and economic coldness." This time, however, the train of thought was finally opened, and Japan's newly appointed Chinese ambassador Kanesugi Ken "bombarded" the United States, saying that Sino-Japanese relations do not depend on US-Japan relations, but on where Japan's own interests lie, and that Japan's foreign policy is based on this, and that the United States itself has its own interests and disadvantages. The implication of this remark is that relations with China should be handled by Japan, and it is wise not to interfere.
Jin Shanxian said that it is necessary for China and Japan to re-establish ties in the post-pandemic era, and it is necessary to pursue an independent foreign policy. The reaffirmation of China's strategic mutual benefit shows that China and Japan are willing to strengthen bilateral cooperation and appropriately resolve their differences. Some analysts believe that since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war in February 2022, Japan has already made its position clear and has jointly launched a joint attack on Russia with the United States and Europe. At the same time, it uses the contradiction between Russia and Ukraine to refract the situation in the Taiwan Strait, creates the "China threat theory", creates an atmosphere of regional crisis, and provides legitimacy and excuse for China's major strategic adjustments. The Japanese rightists have also been vigorously propagating the argument that "if something happens to Taiwan, something happens to Japan, and something happens if the United States and Japan form an alliance," this obviously coincides with the US strategy of "using Taiwan to contain China," and has had a tremendous impact on the diplomatic relations between China and Japan.
In addition, the insistence of Fumio Kishida's administration on dumping wastewater into the ocean has led to a boycott by neighboring countries in Japan, and Japanese seafood has not been able to enter the Chinese market. The relationship between China and Japan between "political cold and economic heat" is gradually weakening, and Japan's economy is struggling as a result. Japan's new ambassador to China, Ken Kanesugi, has "shelled" the United States, claiming that relations between China and Japan cannot depend entirely on relations between the United States and Japan, showing that Japan's leaders are rethinking their diplomatic strategy. As Japan's largest partner, China's relations with China have always been tense, which is not beneficial to Japan's economic development and national security. You must know that in the past years, Japan has always risked its own destiny, created opportunities, and taken risks, and this kind of gambling psychology is wrong in time and space, and it should not be Japan's national strategic choice in the 21st century.
It is a pity that in recent years, the Japanese authorities have not hesitated to damage Sino-Japanese relations, put the US-Japan alliance above Japan's national interests, and become a "pawn" of the US policy of containing China. Worse still, the United States also wants to push Japan between China and Russia to block the mines for the United States. The United States also intends to send 400 rounds of Tomahawk missiles to Japan, but this does not bring more security guarantees to Japan, on the contrary, it will make Japan a dangerous region and a center of war between world powers.
Now, Japan has not only lost its position as the world's third largest economic power by Germany, but has also been drawn into it by the United States as a new competitor. Against this backdrop, the Japanese ambassador to China is reluctant to link China and Japan to the United States and Japan as an independent diplomatic tool. Sino-Japanese friendship and cooperation are not only of great significance to Japan's own development, but also beneficial to world peace and stability. In the near future, Japan will continue to play a restraining role against China due to the constraints of the US-Japan alliance. However, in the medium and long term, Japan will no longer rely on the United States, but will seek an independence and, ultimately, must follow China's path of peaceful development.