Japan’s China Grand Strategy: A Blueprint for Transatlantic Players?

Abstract:

How best to explain the quiet security recalibration by European players, especially G7 members, of their relations vis-à-vis China? These initiatives were in part a reactions to Chinese assertiveness, the need to achieve economic security, and the emergence of interlinkages between the East Asian and European security theatres following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine; many were also in response to US demand signals, in particular under the later Trump I (2017-2021) and Biden (2021-2025) administrations.

Less appreciated, however, is that Europe partly emulated, and sometimes worked in lockstep with, the Japanese government, the first G7 player to recalibrate its foreign and security policy into a China-focused grand strategy.

The presentation presents the novel elements of Japanese statecraft vis-à-vis China, such as strategic narratives, infrastructure connectivity, a quiet security embrace of Taiwan, and defense cooperation with G7-plus players. It does so to argue that much of the transatlantic security ententes on China went through a process of socialization that originated in Japan and US-Japan alliance politics, later reinforced by US-centered transmission and minilateral frameworks, in particular the G7+. Since these ententes and traditional alliances are now facing a rupture under the second Trump administration, the presentation also probes the tenability of alternative routes to salvage Transatlantic and Indo-Pacific security cooperation, suggesting potential solutions and ways to manage policy expectations.

Bio:

Giulio Pugliese

Dr Pugliese is the Director of the EU-Asia Project at the European University Institute. He specializes in the international politics of the Asia-Pacific with a focus on Japan’s international relations. He has presented and published on academic, policy-oriented and commercial themes, including in International Affairs, The Australian Journal of International Affairs, The Asia-Pacific Journal, East Asian Policy, Pacific Affairs, The Pacific Review, Defense Strategic Communications. He is a regular contributor to Asia Maior, Italy’s leading journal on contemporary Asian affairs, and author of Sino-Japanese Power Politics: Might, Money and Minds (Palgrave MacMillan, 2017, also available in Korean).
He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge. He was a Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter at the Department of Chinese Studies in Heidelberg University, a Lecturer in War Studies at King’s College London, a Lecturer in Japanese Politics at the University of Oxford, and a recipient of a British Academy Post-Doctoral Fellowship. He has held visiting scholar positions at GRIPS, Johns Hopkins University SAIS, and George Washington University. In 2023, he was awarded the Nakasone Incentive Award for his research on Japanese diplomacy.

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