China's Friendly Offensive Toward Japan in the 1950s: The Theory of Wedge Strategies and International Relations

• Published in: Asian perspective Vol. 39; no. 1; pp. 1 - 26
• Main Author: Yoo, Hyon Joo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Seoul Institue for Far Eastern Studies 01.01.2015; Johns Hopkins University Press; 극동문제연구소
• Subjects: Alliance; Case studies; China; Cold War; Concepts; Exploring China's Conduct of Foreign Relations; Foreign affairs; Foreign policy; International crisis; International Relations; International trade; Japan; Liberalism; Mediation; Military strategy; Peoples Republic of China; Political alliances; Politics; Prime ministers; State; Studies; Threats; Trade relations; United States of America; 정치외교학; China; Japan
• ISSN: 0258-9184; 2288-2871; 2288-2871
• DOI: 10.1353/apr.2015.0007

This article explores why the People's Republic of China employed a surprisingly soft and lenient policy toward Japan in the 1950s despite their historical and political animosities. Relying on a relatively new concept in the study of international relations, I argue that China's conciliatory policy toward Japan represented a wedge strategy that was designed to detach Japan from the United States and weaken the US-Japan alliance. The logic of the theory also reveals that China's policy was in line with its "united front" against the United States during the Cold War.