From its insistence that Japan should favour diplomatic normalization with the Republic of China over the People's Republic of China in 1952, through its role, via the Security Treaty, of keeping the 'cap in the bottle' of Japanese militarism, to weighing in on the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands dispute between China and Japan, the United States has played a pivotal, and at times controversial, role in the development of China-Japan relations since the end of World War II. By extension, US influence on China-Taiwan and Taiwan-Japan relations, in addition to its impact on the efforts of various actors...

The trajectory of Sino-Japanese relations over the last two decades has left many wondering whether there were any strategic issues of importance that Beijing and Tokyo could actually agree upon. The Korean peninsula, strategically nestled between China, Japan and Russia, has traditionally been seen as a sphere of influence for the Great Powers. Avoiding all-out conflict and ensuring a nuclear-free Korean Peninsular are certainly strategic goals that both China and Japan share; yet, despite alternating between political pressure and diplomatic efforts, Japan and China have found it extremely...