Start of China’s “Japan Neutralization” Policy in the 1950s: Three Factors in the Formulation of the “Japan Policy Platform”

The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Central Committee’s Measure and Plans for Policy Activities concerning Japan, formulated in March 1955, was China’s first Japan Policy Platform after the founding of the People’s Republic of China. It specified policy principles and measures. Its policy directed toward Japan could be called a “Japan neutralization” policy. There were three factors that contributed to the formulation of the Japan Policy Platform. The first factor was the start of full-fledged Japan-China private-sector exchanges and the CCP's aim to break away from a people's diplomacy toward Japan that centered on support for the Japanese Communist Party. The second factor was the major change in postwar Japanese politics with the resignation of the Yoshida Cabinet and the start of the Hatoyama Cabinet. The third factor was the change in foreign policy, with the reintroduction of the “Theory of Intermediate Zones” and the international environment, with the advent of the Sino-Soviet honeymoon period and the intensification of the US-China confrontation.