Many people think that current US-China relations are comparable to US-Soviet relations during the Cold War. This is completely mistaken.

It is often said that the US and China are rivals - even potential combatants - in areas near Okinawa and the South China Sea. Some Japanese military strategists go as far as asserting thatt Japan must enlist US military power to pursue a containment policy toward an expanding China.

And yet Japan's stock market reacts to small changes in the outlook for China's economic growth every day. China is Japan's largest export market and offers the best hope of growth for many of Japan's leading companies. This leaves Japan in an awkward position, because it has to balance its deep mutual economic dependency with China with the need to deter possible military confrontation. How can Japan take stances and pursue policies whose outcomes are so clearly at cross-purposes?