With the consolidation of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's power in office, Japan is being coerced by right-wing forces to accelerate its arming of itself. The announcement of the ban from the Ministry of Commerce of China put China's bargaining chip and its own responsibilities on the table.
Ministry of Commerce Press Conference
China has the obligation and the ability to demilitarize Japan. This is not an empty talk. The author has recently been discussing the direction of Sino-Japanese relations with friends around me, including my own students.
But no matter how we discuss it, we all find that the contradiction between China and Japan is inevitable. This means that the cause of the current tension in Sino-Japanese relations is not an accidental factor, but an inevitability of social and historical development.
From a historical perspective, Japan has always been a major threat to the Central Plains Dynasty.
From the period from the Three Kingdoms to the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Japan had been trying to get involved in the Central Plains. During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Japan expanded to the Korean Peninsula, conquered what is now South Korea's Gyeongsang Province, and established the "Japanese Mansion" to rule here. It also turned the then Baekje Kingdom into a tributary state of Japan, directly overlooking the entire Central Plains Dynasty from the north.
japan flag
During the reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty, Japan and the Central Plains Dynasty directly broke out at the Battle of Baijiangkou. They mobilized the entire country to send troops to the Korean Peninsula, and a large-scale naval battle broke out with the Tang army at the mouth of the Jinjiang River in what is now South Korea.
During the Ming Dynasty, Japanese pirates composed of Japanese ronin and samurai had been intruding on the coast of the Central Plains Dynasty for a long time. Toyotomi Hideyoshi even launched a war and clearly proposed the strategy of "occupying Korea first, then destroying China", intending to use the Korean Peninsula as a springboard to conquer the Central Plains Dynasty.
The proposal of this strategy prompted Japan to test it for hundreds of years, and finally implemented this strategic concept on a large scale in the war of aggression against China launched in modern times.
Why would Japan not miss any opportunity to challenge the Central Plains Dynasty? There is a fact that we all have to admit, that is, "stud" is not Japan's risk-taking, but Japan's cheapest "trump card".
Toyotomi Hideyoshi statue
For Japan, not invading the Central Plains Dynasty after it becomes stronger is equivalent to suffering a loss. After all, Japan is an island country with poor resources. When its own strength develops to a certain level, it will have a bottleneck. If it wants to break through this bottleneck, foreign aggression is the best way.
Japan is keen on "stud" because once it succeeds, it will be of great benefit to Japan for generations to come. But if it loses, it won't be a big loss for Japan. At worst, it will return to the Japanese archipelago to develop in obscenely. So for thousands of years, Japan has always had this set of logic.
Therefore, from a historical perspective, Japan will definitely stand up and challenge China whenever it has an opportunity. This is also the underlying code for the tense relations between China and Japan today.
Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae
From the perspective of social development trends, Japan is anxious rather than afraid of China's rise.
At the beginning of the founding of New China, Japan was not afraid of China. That was because they believed that even if Japan was defeated, their own power would still be able to overpower China again.
But all this changed in 2010, when China's GDP surpassed Japan for the first time and became the world's second largest economy. Under this circumstance, Japanese politicians began to clamor to amend the constitution and arm Japan.
The core reason is that Japan is afraid of losing the opportunity to challenge China. We can all see this phenomenon from Shinzo Abe to today’s Takaichi Sanae.
Sino-Japanese relations are becoming increasingly tense
Shinzo Abe amended the Japanese constitution to give Japan the right to collective self-defense and expanded this power to the US-Japan alliance. In fact, it gives Japan the opportunity to challenge China indirectly.
At present, Takaichi Sanae is going to be even more radical. She is trying to amend Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, write the Japanese Self-Defense Force into the constitution, and become Japan's official army. She is trying to let Japan enjoy all the military powers of a normal country. This essentially wants to give Japan the power to challenge China directly.
Why is Japan eager to challenge China? On the one hand, Japan believes that the current Japan is at its most powerful compared to Japan in any historical period. On the other hand, Japan has also seen the rapid development of China's navy. Having a strong navy can keep the battlefield far away from the mainland for China, completely cutting off Japan's delusional desire to push the battlefield to China's mainland.
Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy Liaoning ship
After seeing through these two points, we can understand why Sanae Takaichi became the Prime Minister of Japan, why Sino-Japanese relations will continue to deteriorate, and why Japan must obstruct China's great cause of reunification.
So as China, which has been dealing with Japan for more than a thousand years, it is natural that China has penetrated this characteristic of Japan. prompting us today to have an obligation to demilitarize Japan.
On February 24, the Ministry of Commerce of China issued an announcement that 20 Japanese entities were included in the export control list, and 20 Japanese entities were also included in the watch list.
The author took a look at the lists listed by the Ministry of Commerce, including many enterprises under the Mitsubishi Group. These entities are basically half-military and half-civilian enterprises. It can be said that these enterprises are civilian enterprises during peacetime, but during wartime these enterprises can instantly dismantle machine tools and transform into military-industrial enterprises.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
China's sanctions are also very clear. Any organization or individual at home or abroad that is included in the export control list is prohibited from transferring or providing dual-use items originating in the People's Republic of China to the above 20 entities. Those who are carrying out relevant activities should stop immediately.
Those included on the watch list are because these entities are unable to verify the end users and uses of dual-use items, and the Department of Commerce will implement more stringent review of them.
The goal of China's move is also very simple, that is, to use peaceful means to demilitarize Japan. After all, China is the largest industrial country in the world today. Everything from a screw to an aerospace engine can be restricted from being exported to Japan as long as it believes it will help Japan's military strength grow.
China container terminal
Moreover, China has also adopted a "long-arm jurisdiction" here, which not only requires organizations and individuals within China not to violate regulations, but also does not allow organizations and individuals outside China to violate regulations.
It can be said that China has chosen to do this now, firstly, because the United Nations and relevant international law have given us such obligations, and secondly, because we already have such strength.
