Impact turns + answers – bfhmrs russia War Good
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Harbor Teacher Prep-subingsubing-Ho-Neg-Lamdl T1-Round3, Impact Turns Aff Neg - Michigan7 2019 BFHMRS
AT: ! JapanJapan JoinedJapan’s already participating in the BRI – informality is a distinction without a difference to their internal linkJennings, 18—covered some of everything since 1988, from his alma mater U.C. Berkeley to the Great Hall of the People in Beijing where he followed Communist officials for the Japanese news agency Kyodo. Stationed in Taipei since 2006, he tracks Taiwanese companies and local economic trends that resonate offshore. At Reuters through 2010, he looked intensely at the island’s awkward relations with China. More recently, he’s studied high-tech trends in greater China and expanded his overall news coverage to surrounding Asia. (Ralph, “Japan Is Committing To China's Belt & Road Initiative, But What's In It For Them?,” Forbes, 4/17/18, https://www.forbes.com/sites/ralphjennings/2018/04/17/why-japan-had-to-join-china-in-building-trade-routes-around-asia/#338b8ee17175, AS) Despite being a competitor of China for economic influence in developing Asia, Japan has effectively joined China's $1 trillion Belt and Road initiative, to facilitate trade around the continent by building infrastructure as far away as Europe. Japan voiced its support in May and July last year for the project, also known as the New Silk Road, and on Monday the Chinese trade minister suggested to his Japanese counterpart that the two countries carry out an “important consensus” on Belt and Road market cooperation, Beijing’s official Xinhua News Agency reports. Why is Japan joining China's pride and joy infrastructure project? The two nations have a famously complicated history that's left no shortage of tension between them, both in the past and at present. Japan got onboard partly because the 5-year-old Belt and Road Initiative helps its multinationals expand in other countries. In that way, Beijing's grand designs happen to advance Tokyo's own broader economic ambitions in Asia, scholars suggest. “I think Japan is ambivalent about the Belt and Road initiative but doesn't want to be left out and miss some of the opportunities or benefits,” says Jeffrey Kingston, director of Asian Studies at Temple University Japan. “Clearly Japan sees this as part of Beijing's broader strategy to enhance regional influence and leverage, and Tokyo wants to counter this.” Chinese ambitions advances Japan’s own The government in Tokyo is already pursuing its own “Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy” as Abe announced in August 2016. Part of that mission extending west across Asia to India calls for “high quality” infrastructure investment, according to this study on the East Asia Forum website. Japan pledged $110 billion for that effort in February. It’s working on this strategy in particular with India, Vietnam and Sri Lanka to help keep the South China Sea open for international use, scholars believe. China calls more than 90% of the sea its own. It has militarized parts of it over the past decade, the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative under U.S. think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies has said. Abe pledged $200 billion in 2016 over five years to build roads, ports and power plants overseas. Gains for Japanese multinationals Whether a competitor or collaborator, Japan has realized its own multinationals can benefit from the Chinese effort , says Stephen Nagy, senior associate professor of politics and international studies at International Christian University in Tokyo. China would lay out the initial roads and railways, for example, and Japanese firms would use them to reach markets where China is building that infrastructure. Japanese citizens worry that the BRI will let China form a “long-term strategy to reshape the international system,” meaning more power over Japan itself, Nagy says. But to avoid it hurts Japanese companies, whose pre-tax profit margins fell in the final quarter of 2017. “Japanese businesses have deep experience building high quality infrastructure, and not being part of the Belt and Road Initiative would mean that they would not enjoy the economic benefits of the initiative,” Nagy says. “There is pressure on the administration to join the Initiative so that Japanese businesses don't lose out.” An example of how the two countries could work together: Japanese logistics firm Nippon Express joined the Kazakhstan state railway company to move cargo through the vast, resource-rich Central Asian country. That partnership could facilitate Japanese business in the oil-rich country that's become a critical central station along the New Silk Road. Download 0.83 Mb. Share with your friends:
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