Скачать или смотреть Henry Kissinger - On China | CH3 | The Challenge of Japan

The title of the third chapter of On China by Henry Kissinger is **From Preeminence to Decline**. The subsection is **The Challenge of Japan**.

This section explains why Japan posed a unique challenge to China’s traditional world order. Unlike most neighboring states, Japan had long resisted inclusion in China’s tribute system and developed a strong, insular identity rooted in cultural and ethnic homogeneity. Japan viewed its emperor as a divine descendant of the Sun Goddess—an explicit challenge to China’s belief that there could be only one rightful emperor under heaven.

While China’s exceptionalism rested on a universal civilizational mission, Japan’s exceptionalism arose from a mix of cultural pride and fear of being overshadowed by its larger neighbor. Japan guarded its purity by limiting foreign contact and managing its own smaller tribute networks in nearby islands and Korean kingdoms—ironically borrowing China’s own diplomatic model to assert independence from it.

Trade and diplomacy between the two countries repeatedly stalled because each insisted on its own standards of superiority. Japan refused to conduct trade as “tribute,” while China rejected dealings that suggested equality.

Japan saw its security in sharper terms than China did. Feeling vulnerable as an island nation near a powerful continent, Japanese leaders alternated between long periods of isolation and bold attempts to challenge Chinese dominance. Encounters with Western powers in the mid-19th century pushed Japan toward rapid modernization. After the arrival of Western warships in 1853, Japan embraced foreign technology, reformed its institutions, and launched the Meiji Restoration, vowing to seek knowledge globally to strengthen imperial rule.

Japan’s modernization produced rapid economic and military advancement. Its leaders concluded that survival depended on taking initiative—otherwise Japan would be dominated. Chinese statesmen watched this transformation with growing alarm. Observers noted early on that Japan’s power and ambition were increasing, and that its proximity made it a far more urgent threat than distant Western nations. By the 1870s, Japan was already testing its strength abroad, prompting warnings that it would become China’s persistent concern.

As Japan’s confidence grew and China’s claims to superiority weakened, Japan began to envision replacing China as Asia’s leading power. Their rivalry converged on Korea, the territory lying between them and symbolizing their competing ambitions.