Recommendations: Basic Principles of a US-Japan Strategy for China

The American Enterprise Institute, in collaboration with Japan Forum on International Relations, has been conducting a joint U.S.-Japan research project, titled “China Risk and China Opportunity in the ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific Era,'” to seek policy coordination between the United States and Japan to confront and respond to the risks and opportunities that an increasingly assertive and rising China poses to the international community.

In July 2021, seizing the opportunity of the start of a new diplomatic and security structure in the United States and Japan with the completion of the Biden administration’s review of U.S. policy toward China in the United States and the personnel shakeup of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and National Security Secretariat in Japan, this project issued “Urgent Recommendations: Proposed Basic Principles of a U.S.-Japan Strategy for China,” prepared by KAMIYA Matake (project Leader and Japan team leader), James SCHOFF (then U.S. team leader), KAWASHIMA Shin (vice-leader of Japan team) and HOSOYA Yuichi (vice leader of Japan team).

Since then, the project has conducted three joint U.S.-Japan workshops on democracy and human rights, economic security, and Taiwan, based on this urgent proposal, and has prepared an expanded and revised version based on the results of the discussions held there, also taking into consideration the recent developments surrounding Russia and Ukraine.

This revised and expanded version was prepared by members of the project from both the U.S. and Japan team, co-chaired by the above four leaders and Zack Cooper, who has become the U.S. team leader since April 2022, when the U.S. implementing organization was changed from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace to the American Enterprise Institute.

The authors believe that this revised and expanded version, which updates the comprehensive and multifaceted guidelines on what strategies the United States and Japan should adopt toward China in light of the latest international developments, provides further important input for both U.S. and Japanese governments in formulating their policies toward China.

The full English text of the revised and expanded version is available below. Previous project materials can be found here.