Research On The Development And Constraints Of Sino-Japanese Relations After The Cold War

China and Japan are close neighbors separated by a strip of water. Meanwhile, Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations are a crucial part in promoting harmonious international relations, which contribute to peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific regions. After Cold War(1947-1991), Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations, based on the diversified international situations and remarkable enhancement of the China’s overall national power, presented new features with a dominant one “emphasizing economic development, setting aside political communication”, which accompanied developing chances and multilateral disputes between two countries. Forging into new century, Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations, however, are not to be eased expectedly, but more serious and complicated, which results from a series of historical and practical facts. After Cold War, Japanese nationalism began to rise and took hold widely; right-wingers in Japan took the power gradually and the situation of the domestic politics was more conservative. As is mentioned above, these negative elements forced Japanese government to take the opposite position and impeded the development of the diplomatic relations with China. In terms of historical issues, a series of behaviors of Japanese government as disregarding historical facts, denying the Nanjing Massacre, glorifying their bloody aggression, visiting to the Yasukuni Shrine for the war dead ignoring fierce objections from its nations and foreign countries and institutions, all of these behaviors hurt Chinese people deeply; in the terms of territory issues, there are many conflicts between China and Japan upon Diaoyu Islands ascription and East China Sea oil and gas exploration; in terms of developing issues, Japanese government expands armaments actively, which is far beyond its defense requirements. Meanwhile, Japanese government breaks the peace constitution step by step, lifts collective self-defense, which brings mass of concerns and worries for its neighbors. These disputes and conflicts block the healthy development and set up many challenging obstacles for diplomatic relations between China and Japan.Aiming to promote bilateral relations, enhance well-being for two countries people, cultivate a peaceful and stable developing environment for this world, China and Japan should strengthen mutual cooperation and communication, improve regional economic cooperation and create beneficial conditions on maintaining bilateral relations. At the same time, two countries governments should establish mutual trust mechanism, realizing the prompt communication upon major issues, regulating disputes and contradictions within a certain range and avoiding strategic misjudgments. In terms of historical issues, Japanese government should face up to history, reflect deeply on the lessons of war, make a sincere apology and provide reasonable compensation to the victims who suffered severely in the war. In terms of pursuing great power status in the international society, China and Japan should set aside disputes, solve problems through negotiations and choose a win-win way for mutual further development. What’s more, the government of China and Japan should bear the responsibility to set a good example for the public, providing excellent education for generations, rooting Sino-Japanese friendship thought from generation to generation, so that a peaceful and stable development now and future for China and Japan.This paper is basically composed of four chapters. The first one is about the development stages and features of Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations after Cold War. Moreover, it summarizes the tortuous development stages and characteristics between two countries since Cold War, which provides historical background and realistic basis for the whole paper. The second one mainly generalizes traditional constraints that impact Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations. The tensions, ups and downs of Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations dates back to long time ago. By outlining the traditional factors, it presents a more comprehensive and accurate summary of factors that impact Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations, which correlates with the third chapter. The third one is the causes that resulted in the tension of Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations in the new period. After the Cold War, especially since the beginning of the 21 st century, Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations remains tense. In spite of several-sides efforts, the relations between two countries have not improved a lot because of many realistic factors. Based on the analysis of the first three chapters, the restrict factors to Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations; the fourth one proposes strategies to promote and improve relations between two countries from the perspective of China. Echoing with the former three chapters, the fourth one, as the ultimate goal of the paper, aims to provide useful reference about diplomatic policies for some countries through countermeasures and suggestions.