ABSTRACT

China and Japan established diplomatic relations in 1972. Since then, the international and domestic structures that originally framed the two countries’ relationship have changed significantly. Internationally, it was a shift from the bipolarity of superpowers (the United States and the USSR) to US unipolarity. During the Cold War bipolarity, Beijing, Tokyo and Washington enjoyed a “golden age” in their relationships when they were aligned against Moscow and its allies.1 However, those halcyon days ended after the 1989 Tiananmen Incident and the subsequent implosion of the USSR.