The Implementation Of The German Policy Of Reconciliation

The current Sino-Japanese relations have come to a crossroad, because a number of contradictions with history issue as a core have caused serious damage to their amicable ties. How the Sino-Japanese impasse could be solved has become a key topic in foreign relations studies.Similar to China and Japan, European powers Germany and France have gone through a process from confrontation to reconciliation after WWII. German reconciliation policy have not only successfully built a close German-French partnership, but also made great achievement in fostering European integration through deep cooperation between two nations.This article is theoretically based on the principle that reconciliation is the base of powers' cooperation and regional integration. In retrospect of three stages of German reconciliation policy, the author takes German reconciliation mode which includes complete settlement of history issues, insurance of peace and promotion of cooperation as an important factor of forming successfully the friendly ties with France. The essence of the policy is a close connection between reconciliation and cooperation, namely complete settlement of history issues on one side, and finding common interests of the two countries, European integration and double win through coordination and compromises within European framework on the other side.Comparing the reconciliation between German and France with the establishment of Sino-Japanese friendly ties, the article concluded that Japan's incorrect handling of history issues is a major problem in Sino-Japanese ties. In addition, Japan did not realize its common interests with China, and the fact that the lack of mutual trust and exchange mechanism will not be conductive to form a long-term friendship between the two countries. As a result, Japan must pursue reconciliation policy and completely settle history issues. China and Japan should make concerted efforts to promote regional integration in East Asia and act as two engines of regional cooperation to promote national and regional development, and to realize their win-win and regional multilateral wins at last.