ABSTRACT
This chapter describes China's relations with Japan and Europe, with a primary focus on the middle-to-late 1990s. Asia-Europe relations received a boost in March 1996 when the first Asia-European Conference was held in Thailand. It was attended by leaders from China, Japan, South Korea, and seven members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and all fifteen European Union countries. China has been particularly eager to attract foreign direct investments from Japan's business community. Into the early 1990s, Beijing often complained about the relative paucity of these investments. Sino-Japanese ties are regularly reinforced by visits between the two countries' cabinet-level ministers. Virtually all senior Japanese leaders, including the staunchly conservative Liberal Democratic Party chiefs, have visited China. Despite the extensive economic linkages and regularized contacts between political leaders, some of these problems had seemed to be getting more serious. Some are essentially bilateral in nature, whereas others are part of the larger Asian geopolitical scene.
