politics

China may cozy up to Japan to tackle economic slump, but faces hurdles

52 Comments
By Tomoyuki Tachikawa

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© KYODO

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

52 Comments
Login to comment

Japan should simply say, 'Thanks, Mr Xi, but no thanks. We don't need to increase our imports from China."

11 ( +16 / -5 )

If Japan "cozies up" to China, they should get a big slap in the face for stupidity. This is nothing but a snake country and they'll turn on you again and again and again (like they already have).

12 ( +17 / -5 )

separation of economics from politics is just impossible

8 ( +10 / -2 )

China may try to cozy up to Japan in the short run to curb a possible economic downturn, as President Xi Jinping has been keen to secure a controversial third term as leader at the ruling Communist Party's twice-a-decade congress in fall.

China is going to be master of the Russian market and Japan will follow reluctantly.

Japan's influence is fading fast.

-7 ( +4 / -11 )

This is where the world gets china wrong, they’re only nice when they need something, as soon as they don’t need Japan it will be after territory and complaining about the war again..

14 ( +17 / -3 )

This is a lie .

China definitely does not need or want to cozy up to Japan.

1 ( +8 / -7 )

Just look at what China is doing to Australia. Would you really trust the CCP?

15 ( +18 / -3 )

Just look at what China is doing to Australia. Would you really trust the CCP?

Don't forget how the Chinese retaliated against South Korea over the THAAD battery. Or what they are doing to Lithuania.

18 ( +19 / -1 )

Already Chinese manufacturers have swallowed up Japanese, surrounding region manufacturing. Go to Aeon, Daiso, Daiei, any super for that matter. Over 90% of goods are Made In ChinF". Where one buys 2 nose-rests for "Made In Japan", you get 5 of them "Made In ChinU". You buy a tea-cup "Made in Taiwan" and next shelf you see a larger size tea-cup that is "Made in ChinC". Almost all Electronics that you buy in Japan is "Made in ChinK". 

And if you combine all end-letters instead of "a", result is what Japan got XXXXed by loving China!

4 ( +8 / -4 )

It is STUPID for ANY country in the world to cozy up to china in any way shape or form period!!

If Japan does, & china is STUPID enough to try to take Taiwan then Japan will pay MORE when sanctions hit.

As I said way back when russia invaded, china has got to be crapping themselves thinking what would happen if similar sanction hit them & that is GOOD!!!

With regards to china TWO things need to happen, the west needs to get OUT of china fast as they can & china needs to change ITS ways NOW, so that the former is no longer necessary, but alas that is unlikely given how china has treated Hong Kong & how it treats its own people as well!!!

7 ( +9 / -2 )

Have been saying this for years, Japan maybe the perfect country to act as middleman and help avoid the collision course we see set in motion and playing out day by day. I think we can all now imagine an absolutely catastrophic global conflict could now happen, WW3 now very possible, all this in a time that we should be fostering communication and cooperation between nations to deal with the pressing issues that threaten our very existence as a species.

The cool headed, often dry and clinical approach to everything ( yes , I’m being nice ) shown by the Japanese, their inherent ability to stay detached and not get over emotional when things go sideways; we need a stoic amongst the noise. Japan knows ( although rarely advertises ) too well the horrors of war, and what it can do to a nation, Kishida from Hiroshima, people will listen if they finally decide they have something to say.

Much to the surprise of many JT readers who often frustratingly have to deal with the poker faces and refusal to commit on a daily basis, Japan may just save the world from catastrophe if it plays its cards right. The perfect balance of ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ power will have to be realized. The cultural aversion to playing central roles, and not ‘sticking out’ will have to go, along with firm, fair, and pragmatic policies must be agreed upon and set, but I believe it is far from the realms of possibility that they could rise to the occasion in these dire and desperate times. Of course the cynics will scoff, but if you have ever had access to some high performing J nationals you will get it. Maybe a bit slow off the mark, very cautious in committing to something, tight lipped, but once they move they move remarkably well and know exactly what they are doing, China will have to grow up a bit to get to the grown ups table, and also give up the notion that it can bully Japan ( and everyone else ) into submission, but once again impossible is nothing.

Save us Obi Wan, you’re our only hope.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Major sensitive issues such as history and Taiwan are foundational to mutual trust between our two countries," advising Japan to "avoid serious disruption to our bilateral relations in the future."

Statements like that create this nearly uncontrollable urge to make a very undiplomatic hand gesture to the Chinese foreign minister and use a Beijing slang term that rhymes roughly with "lush grass mud horse" but means something entirely different on the street.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

China is trying to run interference for Russia because Japan's relationship to the US. They do not want the same thing to happen to them if the Western world finally decides that China is part of the problem in Ukraine.

China is hoping to come out big from this conflict by exploiting Russia and at the same time pretend to be an innocent bystander!

8 ( +9 / -1 )

China may cozy up to Japan to tackle economic slump, but faces hurdles?

Is there really a need for China to get closer to Japan to beef up its economy?

One would suspect Xi might not want to do that, since Tokyo's animosity against Beijing remains tense, notably at this Ukraine war juncture..

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

@Speed

The article says CHINA may cozy up to Japan !

Not - Japan may cozy up to China.

Simple words are confusing if you don't pay attention.

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

@ Ricky

If you think that Japanese are cool-headed and dont get over emotional when things go sideways then iam sorry but your either extremely naive or uneducated or have never lived in Japan.

No insult intended .

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at a press conference on Monday on the sidelines of this year's parliament, "There are always some people in Japan who are reluctant to see the rapid development of China and stable China-Japan relations."

Yeah, they're the people who orchestrated the regime change of then Japanese Prime MInister Yukio Hatoyama in 2011 when he attempted to forge closer ties with China and South Korea.

-6 ( +2 / -8 )

China may cozy up to Japan to tackle economic slump, but faces hurdles

I hardly think so.

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

China is currently banning all imported products, they are claiming them as the cause for the uptick in Covid cases in china…truly bizarre.

They are likely doing this to improve domestic consumption of their goods as other countries demand decreases.

Working with china always leads to negative results. Counties should cut their losses and move away from Chinese dependency.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

I think this article is misleading as it makes Japan sound as if Japanese economy is much stronger than China's economy.

I think Japan is more interested in continuing trade with China than Japan is willing to admit.

Like it or not we must all admit China is on the rise economically and militarily .

And that's precisely the real issue here.

I seriously doubt any coziness from either China or Japan in the near future.

Japan too stubborn and China too pushy.

-5 ( +1 / -6 )

China is hoping to come out big from this conflict by exploiting Russia

China is indeed doing a great job of exploiting Russia, and Chinese banks are the beneficiaries, as if they do not have enough capital already. The US and Western allies confiscated private properties and assets belonging to private Russia citizens, their houses and bank accounts. These are private individuals, not Russian government assets. They are private businesspeople, they have nothing to do with Ukraine Conflict.

Private assets were always off limits to governments, a bedrock of democracy in the world, not anymore.

Wealthy individuals around the world will be considering finding a safe place for their assets, in case the US suddenly decides to sanction their governments for whatever political reasons. Even Switzerland or Japan are no longer safe.

For these rich Russians, the safe haven is China. Last week Reuters reported 300 Russian companies rushing to open Chinese state bank accounts and future transactions are to be in yuan.

-6 ( +0 / -6 )

China cozy up to Japan? seriously?? Dream on. Who came up this delusional nonsense? China and Japan becoming friendly is not going to happen - no way, because that is not what China has in mind. China cozying up to Japan is as likely as democracy returning to Hong Kong or even China apologizing to Japan for detaining its citizens, or anything else for that matter. China has cozied up to Russia in order to get cheap oil and other raw materials for the manufacture and export of finished products while it continues to build up its armed forces. It is Japan and other oil dependent economies that are facing an economic slump and stagflation. China has planned this even before the invasion and could well come out of this economically stronger. A more accurate headline should read - China may tell Japan to kowtow in the not too distant future. But I guess that's not really what the author or the Japanese public want to hear or think about too much.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Exactly !

China just keeps getting stronger.

Its inevitable.

Everything the west and japan does to try and stifle China keeps backfiring.

-9 ( +1 / -10 )

China may cozy up to Japan to tackle economic slump, but faces hurdles

I hardly think so

Their slump is still growth. In 2021, China achieved 8.1% growth in gdp. From my experience in dealing with the Chinese, if they’re in a strong position, they’ll report low. People in weak positions will report high. If they think deliveries will take ten days, they’ll say two weeks. A sketchy supplier will promise something they can’t deliver. If they think they’ll get an A on the test, they’ll say it’s going to be a hard midterm and they’ll be lucky to get a B. They report conservatively or be the crouching tiger.

That is not to say they don’t hide facts. It works the other way around too. For example, very few people believe the reported number of Covid cases in China. The reality is invariably much higher. That said when they predicted the target of 5.5% gdp growth for 2022, you can be sure 6.0% will be closer to the final figure than 5.0%. You inflate or deflate depending on whichever projects a stronger better image.

If China is cozying up to Japan, it is politically motivated and not because of an economic slump.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

China using Hitlers playbook. China cozy up to Japan like Nazi's did with Russia.

When the Nazi's were ready they invaded their "friend" and China may have a similar agenda with Senkaku's and Okinawa.

Trust Jinping as much as Vlad or Adolf or Joseph. Trust them not at all.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

It's time for good brotherhood with honor code they both use. Let's not stay enemies forever.

Positively and personally, China and Japan can become good friends together. It's the outer world that is making them apart.

-9 ( +1 / -10 )

This is why Asians are smarter. In the west it's always bang! bang! bang!

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

@Reckless Russia is definitely ensnared by Chinese clout for the foreseeable future, and China didn't even try

2 ( +3 / -1 )

This is why Asians are smarter. In the west it's always bang! bang! bang!

I’ve heard this view before. I had a Japanese guy once tell me Asians don’t fight each other but fight among themselves, that Japan never invaded Korea, China has never invaded Korea or Japan. I said what about Japan going into Manchuria and Southeast Asia. He said that it was because Japan was copying Western imperialism and thought they had to in order to modernize. Left alone Japan supposedly would not have ventured outside of Japan and remained an isolated island country.

The Qing or the Manchus expanded their territory and the Mongols are considered Asians. I don’t know if Asians are smarter, but they’ve had their share of wars and it’s not all about drinking tea and writing poetry under the cherry or plum tree blossoms.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi  is not the only one among CCP who believes 20 century was the just a hole

in the humane history, where the greatest Chinese, a lap behind, could not rule the world , not to mention Asia . The west has just kept feeding CCP as far as they got stuck up this much

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

The future, fortunate or not, belongs to Asia. India, China, Russia, Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia.

European and US dominance is nearing its end. EU hegemony is a cruel joke. America is a failing empire.

As for the continual harping about China invading Taiwan, why would China bother? It will eventually be absorbed into the Chinese economic empire.

Biden and Obama's, Pivot To Asia, was simply backwards, antipodal.

-5 ( +2 / -7 )

China may cozy up to Japan to tackle economic slump, but faces hurdles

Delusion grandeur.

Which has a stronger economy,

The japanese economy has been in the doldrums since the bubble burst in the early 90s yet there is always that tendency to play up the J-economy and the thinking that the economy of other countries will have to rely on Japan. It is with this type of living on past glory that nothing has been done for over thirty years to stimulate growth and increase workers wages and standard of living all the while those countries that were said will rely on Japan have grown without relying on Japan.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

The future, fortunate or not, belongs to Asia. India, China, Russia, Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia.

Saying it over and over and over makes it no more likely to happen. Russia is done for the future. Any similar move by China will end its trade networks and lead to its collapse as well. The future belongs to the future. What part nations play in it is not certain by any means. This close to midnight on the worlds doomsday clock means any little wrong move will mean no future at all for current nations.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Someone must be too sweet to themselves. China even do not need America, why do they need Japan???

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Things were going fine until Trump became president of the US. He lost confidence in the ability of the US to compete with China, and started breaking up the relationship. China is the future, and Japan should join the Chinese sphere.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

If Japan is to be taken in by these spurious overtures from the deceitful CCP, they do so at their peril.

By all means have a businesslike working relationship with them, but never trust them; they are currently involved in 11 separate international disputes throughout the region, which doesn't exactly fill any serious suitor with confidence.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

China will give you a big fraternal Asian hug, as they slip the knife in to your back!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Richard Gallagher

The future, fortunate or not, belongs to Asia. India, China, Russia, Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia.

Strong disagree. Asia isn't going to lead anything except for cheap, low value-added goods and services.

India may compete with China on manufacturing cheap goods, but they don't seem like an innovative and inventive country.

China has failed to be anything other than a technology thief.

Russia's economy is mostly oil, which will be phased out mostly as the rest of the world switch to EVs.

Japan is irrelevant. They had an easy ride to the top after WW2 when all of Europe and the rest of Asia got destroyed, but the platforms that they lead in are going to be phased out. The automobile sector in Japan will crash this decade as Tesla stomps them to the ground.

Unsure about Korea, but I would have to guess their situation is similar to Japan's.

Southeast Asia is just another low-value manufacturing area like China. I don't think they're going to be taking over the world or anything.

The future will continue to belong to the US, as the US continues to attract the smartest people around the globe. Asia will continue to be a 2nd rate, low-value continent only specializing in copy & pasting western innovations.

Unfortunately, I believe the west is not going to make the same mistake and let Asian countries flood the market freely.

-8 ( +1 / -9 )

Also, may I remind you that despite Asian countries coming out of poverty and and attaining wealth, they have failed to become innovative leaders or scientific leaders. All they still do is copy & paste.

The only Asian invention that truly changed the world was MOSFET, and that was back in the 1960s by a Korean American. Aside from that, Asians haven't really invented anything truly world-changing. Who in the right mind would say that Asia will dominate the world when they have no track record of leading in any intellectual field?

-8 ( +1 / -9 )

Tesla @795.35

Strong disagree. Asia isn't going to lead anything except for cheap, low value-added goods and services.

I bet it would sound like so racist comments not only to me as if there were no Asian who won Nobel prizes

4 ( +7 / -3 )

The Japanese needs massive "Made in China" products to survive, when oil price surges, inflation surges! Also Japan is an elderly nation with a high retired population.

Only the cheap Chinese made exports can save the hardship of Japanese from an economic peril. I think the tile is the other way around, it should be : Japan cozy up with China to take economic slump.

-7 ( +0 / -7 )

Hu Jintao , the Ex-CCP China top knew and appreciated Technology transfers from Japan for free. Look at Panasonic for example. They begged to move the production into China and train domestic Chinese.

Xi is the one who had legalized that any foreign companies cannot inhale profits unless they disclose such technologies so that it wouldn't need those foreign capitals/technology no more to catch up with world-wide standards.

If you want to make money in 1.4billion market?, Show us everything

CCP China tactics &sales talks have been always " Win-Win" , meaning, you can make lots of money if you show your tricks"

4 ( +7 / -3 )

Russia has shown that it's not good idea to do business with or rely on countries of dictators, especially ones that have ambition for their expansion. Japan, just stay way from them!

3 ( +3 / -0 )

China "cozying up" to Japan makes me think of a big hairy dog trying to rub itself on your trouser leg :)- Just not a pretty picture.

Xi Jinping wasn't the first Chinese, cough cough, leader to demand tech transfer as the price of doing business in China. That goes back to Deng, but back then most in the west were of the opinion that mutual trade and contact with the west would gradually change China (and nobody wanted to miss out on the growing Chinese middle class market). Trade and contact worked for South Korea and Taiwan, changing two horrible military dictatorships into model democracies. It was kind of looking like it might work in China through Hu Jintao's first term. There were even serious discussions at a People's Congress of allowing private land ownership and there were experiments with competitive local elections. But during Hu's second term his reforms died, and Xi Jinping is a revanchist Maoist true believer who in speeches states that capitalism must be defeated. Read some of his speeches. It'll curl your hair! He will never be a friend of the capitalist world, it is just a means for him to develop China until they are powerful enough to destroy capitalism. Being a devoted Maoist however I don't see Xi ever getting there. He will drive China's economy down much as Mao did as he kicks the likes of Jack Ma out of their own company, tells China's biggest private corporations to look to those bastions of efficiency and innovation, the State Owned Industries, for guidance while requiring all new apps to be approved by the Chinese government before they can be released. Anyone in China with ambition and an entrepreneurial spirit will leave to seek their fortune someplace friendlier to capitalist risk taking. China is not it any more.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

There is no track record of Asians dominating anything since the 18th century.

Before Europeans colonized a third to a half of China, China was far and away the worlds largest economy and had been for many centuries. They were the Middle Kingdom to which all neighbors paid tribute, and did what they were told. European colonization, Japanese colonization, WWII, civil war and Mao's Great Leap Forward followed by the Cultural Revolution greatly reduced China's stature. China's Communist leaders have been trying to restore China's lost stature ever since.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The 1.4billion population market is belong to China, our market,our door and our choice. IF foreign businessman don't like to share with the "Knowhow" he/she can leave without regrets!

History of "Opium War" shown western people cannot be trusted, they poison Chinese people with drugs, pay back time is due! Beat the west in the duel they used to play!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites