ABSTRACT
Sino–Japanese relations have deteriorated to the lowest point since 1972 when the two countries normalized diplomatic relations. At issue are territorial disputes over the uninhabited rocky Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands and the East China Sea, historical grievances, and geostrategic rivalry between Asia’s two great powers. Related to these significant developments are the broader geopolitical contexts of China’s rise and growing Sino–US competition for regional primacy (Friedberg 2011). Beijing increasingly has displayed a more assertive diplomatic stance in responding to issues it considers to be of core national interest while Washington, in an effort to retain its dominant power position in the Asia-Pacific that it has enjoyed since the end of the Second World War, has adopted a rebalancing strategy to assure allies and partners, and to manage a new type of major power relationship (Lampton 2013).
