China and Japan’s diplomatic relationship has come a long way since their initial establishment of peace in 1972. Polls show that as of fall 2021, 90 percent of the Japanese population possess a negative view of China. Ever since its 1996 attempted attack on Taiwan, China has been bulking up their military through extreme amounts of increased spending. This has caused unrest in Japan, a neighboring country roughly the same distance from China as Taiwan is. China’s launch of missiles into Japan’s zone after Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan caused even more distress and worry from Japan about potentially being pulled into a conflict. China is parallelling North Korea in their influence on Japan’s military budget spending. Despite this, trade between the two countries is stronger than ever. Chinese brands are being embraced (ex. TikTok, which has been banned in India and attempted to be banned in the US).
It is interesting to see the contradictions between economic dependence and political independence between the two countries. If Japan were to get pulled into a conflict between China and the US, it is hard to say whether they would even be able to resist siding with China due to the economic connections they have. The international system between China and Japan is a long standing process that will probably continue to shift naturally, as long as no conflicts are started by an external source.