Following her victory at the polls on Sunday and the mandate that clearly represents, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi should give top priority to restructuring Japan¡¯s strategy with China.
The central challenge facing her administration is how to strengthen deterrence against China while simultaneously seeking stability ¡ª or even improvement ¡ª in bilateral Japan-China relations. Resolving this difficult puzzle will depend largely on the trajectory of U.S. strategy in East Asia.
The Trump administration has halted the tariff war with China while prioritizing homeland defense and the Western Hemisphere ¡ª an approach that U.S. President Donald Trump has called the ¡°Donroe Doctrine.¡± China, by contrast, is pursuing a long-term strategy aimed at prevailing in competition with the United States. Beijing seeks to leverage economic power to erode U.S. global influence in order to reshape the international system, values and norms.
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