Let’s see how you world affairs buffs fair on the acadaemia side. I’m trying to come up with a hypothesis for my masters thesis. It has to be just a sentence, stating what I aim to prove in my thesis. At the most, it can be about 2 lines.
The title of my thesis is “The Political Economy of Sino-Japanese relations since China’s accession to the WTO”.
Please tell me what sounds better:
Economic interdependency between China and Japan is key to the improvement of political relations between the two countries.
Economic relations between China and Japan will eventually lead to greater stability in the political relations of the two countries.
The increasing economic interdependency between China and Japan is likely to improve relations between the two countries.
They’re really strict about the hypothesis and always nit-pick, if you can come up with better wording, feel free to add.
The economic dynamics between the two largest Asian national economies, Japan and China is such an interesting topic indeed. No doubt, Japan has been facing some economic ups and downs since the collapse of its stock and real estate markets. However, it is still reckoned as second most influential economic power after United States of America. In China, economic growth has also achieved new heights in last few decades. It is quite obvious that China will be a major political, military, and economic power, in coming years. So the question arises: will the future relationship between Japan and China be cooperative or conflictive? It is a matter of great international importance how these two countries forge a bilateral relationship, find their roles in East Asia, and simultaneously deal with the United States and the rest of the world.
I am sure that given the topic of your research, you must be aware of Hanns Gunther Hilpert and Ren Haak, the editors of Japan and China: Cooperation, Competition and Conflict. Both are generally optimistic about the future between Tokyo and Beijing. However, in their reflections on Sino-Japanese relations over the past centuries, they recognize both positive and negative circumstances. I would like to copy their exact words here:
"The past 2000 years of Sino-Japanese relations have been harmonious and mutually beneficial, at times, and antagonistic and conflictive at other times. On the positive side, Japan appreciates the Chinese historical contribution in the realms of religion, philosophy, culture and technology. China, in turn, is pursuing an economic policy partly inspired by the developmental success of Japan and its followers in Asia, such as Taiwan, Korea and Singapore. On the negative side, however, the fierce political military conflicts and the atrocities of war in more recent history weigh heavily on the mutual relationship" (pp. 2-3).
So it is pretty obvious that given the history between both of these great nations, there will be a certain amount of rift or competition no matter how close the economic cooperation is. However, one can hope that this competition would be healthy rather than destructive. Based on above discussion, I would like to propose the following hypothesis for your thesis:
Japan and China: More Economic Cooperation, Healthier Competition and Lesser Conflict.
*Originally posted by cat-woman: *
1) Increasing economic interdependency between China and Japan will be a key to improve political relations between the two countries.
