The Roles of the United States in the China–US–Japan Trilateral Relations

Abstract

The trilateral relations among China, US and Japan are one of the most important trilateral relations in world. As the sole world hegemonic power, the United States has been playing as an off-shore balancer, arbitrator and dominator in East Asia to prevent the emergence of a regional challenger against American hegemony in this region. The United States maintains a most advantageous position as the core in the trilateral relations which is termed as “romantic marriage model”. While dramatic changes of the US role in this trilateral structure will not likely change in the near term the US has to play with more caution as the power distribution tilts in favor of China and Japan’s anxiety grows over loss of power.