Japan Institute for National Fundamentals

　
The U.S.-China summit in Washington concluded, leaving the impression of a political drama marked by meticulous calculation and grand staging. U.S. President Donald Trump bracing for midterm elections in November and Chinese President Xi Jinping preparing for the Fifth Plenary Session of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee in late October had their respective reasons to domestically demonstrate themselves as leaders who call the shots for the world. They faced skeptical criticism that the summit had produced no substantive results. However, a closer look at the statements made by the two leaders and the fact sheet released by the White House reveals historical fictions and geopolitical traps woven by major powers that cannot be overlooked.

“Allies in WWII” distorts history

The published fact sheet lists the summit’s achievements such as the establishment of a bilateral dialogue framework on artificial intelligence, tariff cuts for goods worth $30 billion, and promises for two more bilateral summits within this year. Behind these achievements, however, Trump’s rhetorical concession describing the two countries as “allies in World War II” represents a precarious twist of history.

Given that the U.S. wartime ally was the Republic of China led by Chiang Kaishek, not the present-day People’s Republic of China, the statement can only be seen as either a crude distortion of history or a black joke. In response to Trump’s distorted view of “the greatness that we had together fighting in World War II,” Xi said that “Chinese and Americans fought shoulder to shoulder against fascist aggression,” thereby driving a wedge between the United States and Japan. The Chinese Communist Party has repeatedly employed the tactic of using history to portray Japan as a common enemy of the U.S. and China in an attempt to divide Japan and the U.S.

In the past, then-Chinese President Jiang Zemin reminded the American public of “lessons” from Japan’s Pearl Harbor attack during his visit to Hawaii. While tying Japan to historical issues, he tried to instill a unified U.S.-China historical view. Trump’s latest remark is serious because it reinforces this kind of historical distortion inherent in China’s anti-Japanese narrative. The U.S. administration’s easy compromise with China’s historical view could justify China’s pressure on Japan, a true U.S. ally. The magnanimity of the White House at the time, which brushed off the anti-China protests during Jiang’s visit to Washington following Hawaii as a “symbol of democracy,” is absent in today’s United States.

Japan needs resolve against deceit of major powers

Beijing’s calculations are clear. While Washington is exhausted by the Iran war and deepens rifts with U.S. allies, Beijing intends to buy time to achieve China’s self-sufficiency in semiconductor and aircraft manufacturing and develop a durable system capable of withstanding external pressures. It also seeks to entice the U.S. with the reassuring rhetoric of ‘strategic stability,’ while using the time thus gained to steer Washington toward accepting the Western Pacific as China’s sphere of influence and to deter U.S. military intervention. Trump’s attitude of hesitating to engage in a distant war, with Taiwan in mind, hints at the risk that Washington might move toward dividing spheres of influence.

What is required of Japan’s Sanae Takaichi administration is nothing less than to discern what lies behind the deceptive “truce” between the major powers and to possess the realist resolve to protect Japan’s sovereignty and its people. Will Japan continue to play the role of a historical villain tossed about by the interests of the major powers, or confront the harsh realities of geopolitics and forge its own path toward independence? The true test Japan must overcome has just begun.

Hiroshi Yuasa is a Planning Committee member and a senior fellow at the Japan Institute for National Fundamentals. He is also a columnist for the Sankei Shimbun newspaper.