INTERVIEW: Drawing China into Multilateral Frameworks Crucial

Tokyo, March 3 (Jiji Press)--Japan must strive to draw China into frameworks of multilateral regional economic partnerships in order to keep Beijing from engaging in hegemonic activities, former Deputy Foreign Minister Hitoshi Tanaka has said.

"The United States has a military strategy to hold down China as its only strategic competitor, while Japan's interests are not completely the same as those of the United States regarding China," Tanaka said in a recent interview with Jiji Press.

"Since Japan and China are neighbors, we need to consider our relationship with China more delicately," Tanaka said, adding that Japan's foreign policy has stayed "too much in sync" with the U.S. policy since the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was in power.

While some pundits warn that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan has become more realistic, Tanaka said that China is unlikely to take risks in the current situation.

"The Chinese economy is in an extremely serious condition. It can't go without the cooperation of the international community," he explained. "If it attacks Taiwan, it would face economic sanctions from the rest of the world."

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]