ABSTRACT
The Asia-Pacific region is an area where leading global sea powers are concentrated and has become a strategic focal point of contention for those maritime powers. Japan is a neighboring country with immediate stakes in Chinese maritime power. Historically, Japan has repeatedly impeded progress in China’s maritime rise and is presently the most complex and keen-edged country with which China has disputes at sea. On 11 September 2012, following Japan’s ‘island purchase’ incident, Sino-Japanese relations plummeted and were further aggravated as the Abe government assumed power, inheriting the Noda cabinet’s hardline stance on the Diaoyu Islands issue, while zealously striving to amend the constitution and strengthen the military in opposition to China. The past century of Sino-Japanese historical interaction provides for extremely profound and negative educational material. It is true for both Li Hongzhang and Zhang Xueliang that the greater the fear of war, the more inevitable war becomes.
