China Among the Nations of the Pacific by Harrison Brown

Author:Harrison Brown [Brown, Harrison]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Political Science, World, Asian, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9780429724671
Google: jcSrDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 49489362
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2019-08-27T00:00:00+00:00

The Political Framework of Economic Interaction

I began by briefly reviewing the pessimistic prognosis for political confrontation in East Asia against the heritage of hatred and mistrust. But this is not the only trend in the region. Despite the abundance of political problems that directly and indirectly affect the triangle of relations, none is at a high point of confrontation and most exist in quiet limbo as the result of tacit or explicit understandings arrived at in recent years. The most notable example is the Korean peninsula, where a country is divided into two armed camps. Yet in nearly three decades no serious hostilities have occurred, and talks of at least symbolic significance are now under way between the two sides. Tension has wholly disappeared in the Taiwan Strait, in spite of the U.S. renunciation of its defense commitment to the Chinese Nationalists. The Senkaku Islands issue has been indefinitely shelved by Tokyo and Beijing, and the northern islands are not an active matter between Tokyo and Moscow.

The Sino-American detente, the Sino-Japanese peace treaty, a tacit but mutual understanding among the major patrons of the respective Korean antagonists, and the priority given by post-Mao China to internal economic development have combined to place the politics of East Asia in a framework that is less tense than at any time since the end of World War II. Such an atmosphere permits greater attention to the economic interactions, present and potential, relevant to equally critical questions of natural resource management, particularly in and beneath the ocean, capital and technology flows, and possible interdependence. This explains why Japan, alone among the major nations of the region without nuclear weapons and with only a token conventional force, has gradually emerged to play a major role. Its needs and its assets complement those of its neighbors in a mutually reinforcing way, provided that economics are permitted to prevail over politics.

It may be that behind Chinese rhetoric are groups who see this reality. Sino-Soviet trade continues its modest but steady increase, including suggestive items like medium-range jet transport and helicopter aircraft. In 1979, Beijing agreed to meetings at the deputy-foreign-minister level without preconditions, a reversal of its previous stand. For its part, Moscow has offered technical assistance in China's economic modernization.

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