Japan-China relations sit at a critical crossroads, characterized by both rising security tensions and ongoing economic interdependence. Recent incidents, including radar lock-on confrontations between Chinese aircraft and Japan’s Air Self-Defense Force near Okinawa, and diplomatic friction over Japan’s comments on Taiwan, have contributed to one of the most volatile periods in bilateral relations in more than a decade. 

Join the Pacific Council on Friday, January 23, at 8 am PT to hear from Dr. Saori Katada, Professor of International Relations at the University of Southern California and the Director of the Center for International Studies, and Dr. Allen Carlson, Associate Professor in Cornell University’s Government Department. This webinar will explore how Japan and China are balancing deterrence with diplomacy, how shifts in Taiwan policy are influencing regional stability, and how economic sectors, from tourism to supply chains, are being reshaped by geopolitical pressures. 

Why it’s important:

• Chinese J-15 fighter jets locked radars on Japanese aircraft during an alleged training exercise off the coast of Okinawa.
• Japan’s new prime minister, Takaichi Sanae, acknowledged that China’s use of force against Taiwan could be seen as a threat to Japan’s survival, leaving room to interpret that Japan might turn to its Self-Defense Forces in response. 
• The Chinese Commerce Ministry said in late November that trade cooperation between the two countries has been "severely damaged."

Please send questions in advance to events@pacificcouncil.org.

To register for this webinar, visit the Zoom Registration Page.

Guest Speaker

Dr. Allen Carlson is an Associate Professor in Cornell University’s Department of Government. He was granted his Ph.D. from Yale University’s Political Science Department. His undergraduate degree is from Colby College. In 2005, his book Unifying China, Integrating with the World: Securing Chinese Sovereignty in the Reform Era was published by Stanford University Press. He has also written articles that appeared in the Journal of Contemporary China, Pacific Affairs, Asia Policy, and Nations and Nationalism. In addition, he has published monographs for the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and the East-West Center Washington. Carlson was a Fulbright-Hays scholar at Peking University during the 2004-2005 academic year. In 2005 he was chosen to participate in the National Committee’s Public Intellectuals Program, and he currently serves as an adviser to Cornell’s China Asia Pacific Studies program and its East Asia Program. Carlson is currently working on a project exploring the issue of nontraditional security in China’s emerging relationship with the rest of the international system. His most recent publications are the co-edited Contemporary Chinese Politics: New Sources, Methods and Field Strategies (Cambridge University Press, 2010) and New Frontiers in China’s Foreign Relations (Lexington, 2011).

Guest Speaker

Dr. Saori N. Katada is the Louis G. Lancaster Chair of International Relations at the University of California, Santa Barbara (starting July 2026). Previously, she was at the University of Southern California, where she was the Director of the Center for International Studies and Professor of International Relations. She recently served as the vice president of the International Studies Association and on the editorial team of Review of International Political Economy. She is the co-author of an Oxford University Press book, Japan’s Grand Strategy: Liminal Power in an Uncertain World (forthcoming, February 2026). Her single-authored book Japan's New Regional Reality: Geoeconomic Strategy in the Asia-Pacific was published by Columbia University Press in 2020, and its Japanese version was published by Nikkei Press in 2022.  She received the Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Book Award for her other book Banking on Stability: Japan and the Cross-Pacific Dynamics of International Financial Crisis Management (University of Michigan Press, 2001). Her research covers geoeconomics, international political economy of trade and finance, monetary policy, and Japanese foreign policy.  Her Ph.D. is from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and her B.A. is from Hitotsubashi University (Tokyo).

 

To register for this webinar, visit the Zoom Registration Page.