Just when everyone thought that the global trade friction was still a "two-person revolution" between China and the United States, former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's remarks in Beijing some time ago exploded in public opinion in East Asia and even around the world.
This happened in tsinghua campus at the beginning of July this year. At the 13th World Peace Forum, the former Japanese Prime Minister, who had been far away from the political center, made an amazing remark in front of the elites from all over the world.
Xi Jinping clearly stated that in the face of the Trump administration's aggressive tariffs and hegemonic behavior, China should not and does not need to bear one hard, but rather. We should immediately strengthen cooperation with Japan and South Korea to form a solid camp of "Japan-Korea united" to jointly respond.
The whole word is loud.
In the primary knowledge, As the core military allies of the United States in East Asia, Japan and South Korea are almost deeply "bound" to American chariots.
Letting them "turn their guns" and join forces with China to confront the United States sounds like a fantasy.
But is this word by Zhao Zhouf really just a "nonsense" of a retired politician?
Instead of passively beaten, take action.
The outcome of the case has to start with Trump’s return to the White House.
The president who "doesn't play cards according to common sense" restarted the familiar "America First" script as soon as he took office, setting off an unprecedented tariff war on a global scale.
According to incomplete statistics, more than 170 countries and regions have received "tariff bills" from Washington.
Everyone knows the impact of China, as early as April this year, the United States once offered up to 145 percent punitive tariffs on China.
However, China did not give in as some people expected. Instead, it took precise and powerful counter-measures, and finally forced the Americans back to the negotiating table, reaching the Geneva Declaration in May and the London Framework Agreement in June successively, temporarily stabilizing its position.
China's toughness and resilience have made the whole world see that in the face of extreme pressure from the United States, there is no way out for blindly giving in.
Just as China breathed a little, pressure instantly came to America’s “allies”—Japan and South Korea.
Trump’s logic is simple: even China has done it, do you, the “little brothers” who rely on my protection, dare not obey?
and then, Washington has imposed extremely harsh conditions on Tokyo and Seoul, pointing its sword at the "lifeblood" of Japan's automobile and steel industries and South Korea's semiconductor and shipbuilding industries.
Trump even spoke publicly on social media, saying Japan was “destroyed” and threatened to use “new means” to counter them.
In this case, Japanese Prime Minister Shapiro Momo and South Korea's new president, Li, are not able to sit in Minsk.
The trade representative sent by Mr. Shaprow, Mr.赤泽亮, spoke for three days in Washington, and finally broke up.
On the South Korean side, Lee Jae-myung's predecessor, Yin Xiyue, ended up behind bars because he was too pro-American. The lesson from the past is just around the corner.
Faced with the pressures of the United States, the two countries suddenly discovered that their proud "allied" status appeared so fragile and inexpensive in the face of real gold and silver national interests.
Just before the recent NATO summit, the two countries even rarely had a collective absence, which was interpreted by the outside as a silent protest.
It was against this embarrassing background of "allies are unreliable and big brothers have to charge" that Yukio Hatoyama's "China-Japan-South Korea Cooperation Theory" came into being.
He no longer merely called for peace, but offered a highly realistic solution.
Yukio Hatoyama's core logic is actually very clear. He pointed out four paths for Japan and even East Asia as a whole, and analyzed their advantages and disadvantages.
The first way is to follow the United States unconditionally.
Yukio Hatoyama calls this "defeatism" because the myth underlying the path-"America is always strong and cannot make mistakes"-has been shattered.
Calculated by purchasing power parity, the proportion of the U.S. economy in the world has shrunk from 40% in 1960 to about 15% today, and its influence is visibly declining.
Blindly following a "big brother" who is making mistakes will only drag himself into the pit.
The second way is to try to convince the United States.
He said it was both “naive” and “dangerous.”
He described Trump as a "difficult person to reason with." The more you try to reason with him, the more he feels that you are weak and can be bullied, and will instead attract more fierce suppression.
The failure of the Japanese representative in Washington is the best proof.
The third way is to completely break with the United States.
This is also seen as a “short-sighted” behavior.
After all, the United States remains the world's number one powerhouse, with a strong influence in the military, science and technology, finance and other fields.
Completely ignoring the existence of the United States is equally expensive, not in Japan’s national interests.
Excluding these three ways. The only remaining option is Yukio Hatoyama's fourth option: enhancing independence from the United States, which is "de-risky."
How to enhance?
Japan itself is obviously not enough to support it.
Looking back, the only ones that can help Japan with American pressure are its neighbors—China and South Korea.
Therefore, the suggestion of Xi Jinping is that China should not face all the firepower of the United States alone, which is not in the interests of China.
If Japan and South Korea want to get rid of the passive situation, they must also rely on China's strength.
Instead of being defeated by the United States one by one, the three parties should take the initiative to unite and form a joint force.
The bottom line of this proposal comes from strong economic ties between the three countries of China and Japan.
Let's take a look at the latest set of data: According to statistics from the General Administration of Customs and relevant agencies at the end of 2024, the total trade volume between China, Japan and South Korea has exceeded 70% of the entire East Asia, and the total economic volume also accounts for more than 25% of the world.
Japan and South Korea have long been among the top five trading partners of China.
More importantly, the industrial chains of the three countries complement each other perfectly.
China has the most complete industrial system and the largest consumer market in the world; Japan has core technologies in the fields of high-end materials, precision instruments and automobile manufacturing; South Korea leads the world in semiconductors, display panels and shipbuilding.
Imagine how much energy will be released once these three "monster-level" economies are truly deeply bundled and form a unified regional market?
Ideal, full of reality.
The blueprint depicted by Zif is tempting, but thinking about the reality, there is more than a divide between them.
The topic of China-Japan-ROK cooperation, which has been talked about for decades, has always been "loud thunder and little rain", and there are three insurmountable practical obstacles behind it.
The first obstacle is the United States.
The United States will never sit idly by and watch its two core allies and strategic competitors "come together."
Japan and South Korea still have a large number of U.S. troops stationed, and their national security depends deeply on the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan and the U.S.-South Korea Mutual Defense Treaty.
This military bond is the "Damoklis sword" hanging on top of the head of Japan.
There are too many cards in Washington’s hands, whether it’s military pressure, financial sanctions, or pro-U.S. forces at home, enough to pay a heavy price to any politician who tries to “disconnect.”
The United States aims to build a “small NATO” in East Asia, not a united “East Asian community.”
The second obstacle is deep-rooted historical issues and territorial disputes between the three countries.
These problems are like mines buried under the foundation of relations between the three countries, which will be detonated from time to time, seriously eroding the already fragile political mutual trust.
Without a high level of political mutual trust as the foundation, any deep economic cooperation would be airborne.
We can do business together to make money, but to become a strategic partner that can "back and forth" to resist external pressure, at present, is very far away.
The third obstacle comes from the internal politics of the two countries.
Although Yukio Hatoyama is a former prime minister, his idea of "East Asian Community" has always been "non-mainstream" in Japanese politics.
Whether it is the current Takaichi Sanae government or the Lee Jae-myung government in South Korea, There are strong ultra-nationalist forces within them.
Any policy that approaches China will be labeled as "dangerous" and violently attacked.
Therefore, this swing of the arms of Zhiv is more like a crucial historical crossroads, pointing out a different, imaginative but thorn-filled road for the two countries of Japan and Korea.
The pressure of the United States is the "thrust", the economic complementarity of the three countries is the "pull", and the historical burden and security binding are the huge "resistance".
The game of these three powers will determine the future of East Asia.
For China, in the face of the "olive branches" thrown by Zhengzhou, we must both see the strategic opportunities in them, but also maintain a vigilance and caution.
As some analysts have pointed out, we should "take a long-term view" and move forward steadily, rather than "end up rashly."
China's role should not be to actively "woo" whom to fight against whom, but to adhere to its established policy of multilateralism and open cooperation, do its own affairs well, and enhance its own strength and attractiveness.
References:
Yukio Hatoyama: "Trump-style America" may continue for a long time, and East Asia needs to adjust its strategies to jointly respond | Worldview
2025-07-04 09: 36 · China News Network