The Golden Triangle of the U.S.-China-Japan, 1972-1989 (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Golden Triangle of the U.S.-China-Japan, 1972-1989 Quansheng Zhao (bio) Ezra F. Vogel, Yuan Ming, and Tanaka Akihiko, editors. The Golden Triangle of the U.S.-China-Japan, 1972-1989. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2002. 268 pp. Hardcover $40.00, ISBN 0-674-00960-6. The trilateral relationship between the United States, China, and Japan has been one of the most dynamic interactions in the post-Cold War era. As coeditor Ezra Vogel points out in his Acknowledgments at the beginning of this book, "the three powers [are] likely to be the most critical in determining the fate of East Asia over the next several decades." Indeed, no other relationship can be more important to the Asia-Pacific region, and for this reason it has attracted enormous attention from scholars and policy makers alike in recent years.1 This book is the result of the combined efforts of three conferences attended by scholars from the United States, China, and Japan for the purpose of examining the U.S.-China-Japan relationship. The first conference covered the period from 1945 to 1971. The present book is the result of the second conference, which examined the "golden age" from 1972 to the end of the Cold War in 1989. The book is structured such that the nine contributors are divided into three groups, representing the three countries, and thus it attempts to offer a balanced picture of this complicated relationship. As a historical account covering most of the 1970s and 1980s, this book may serve as a starting point for a better understanding of the historical background to its subject as well as more recent developments. The volume is divided into four parts. Part 1 focuses on the domestic politics of the three countries in relation to the foreign policy of each toward the others. This is a constructive first step to [End Page 464] help readers achieve a better understanding of how each country approaches the other two. Michel Oksenberg provides a detailed analysis of the policy-making process in Washington, from the Nixon- Kissinger years to the senior George Bush. Zhang Baijia focuses on Chinese politics during the Cultural Revolution. Kamiya Matake, concentrating on Japanese politics, makes a grand tour through the governments of several Japanese prime ministers, from Tanaka Kakue to Nakasone Yasuhiro. The next three parts concentrate on bilateral relations: "U.S.-China Relations," "U.S.-Japan Relations," and "China-Japan Relations." Each part includes the contributions of two scholars representing their own countries and offering different perspectives. For the U.S.-China group, Robert Ross presents a comprehensive overview of U.S. relations with China, while Jia Qingguo offers a well-researched study on Chinese relations with the United States. Next, Gerald Curtis provides an excellent analysis of American foreign policy toward Japan, while Nakanishi Hiroshi examines Japanese relations with the United States. In the last part of the book, "Sino-Japanese Relations," Zhang Tuosheng and Soeya Yoshihide each analyze their own country's relations with the other from a different angle. The strength of this book is that it lays a foundation for future research. Ezra Vogel gives an excellent summary of each chapter and skillfully highlights the importance of the triangular relationship. Other contributors provide useful frameworks for the comprehension of each country's foreign policy toward the other two. In asking the interesting question "How far was Japan willing to go toward actual military cooperation with the United States?" for example, Kamiya Matake is able to argue that "Tokyo's willingness was influenced by the views and personalities of its successive prime ministers" (p. 61). This brings the analysis from a macro-level of international systems down to the micro-level of actual politics and individual leaders. On the other hand, this approach represents only a beginning and is only partly successful in addressing the dynamics of the triangle. Most of the authors concentrate only on bilateral relations rather than the relations with, and the impact of, the third country. Therefore, the book is more like a collection of studies on three bilateral relationships rather than on a true triangular relationship. The authors tend to discuss...