The Power Politics Behind Sino-Japanese Identity Politics

Dispute inflation

“…While valuable, glossed or missing in many such approaches is a theoretical accounting for why the islands suddenly became such a salient domestic political issue (Chen, 2014: 113–114). Also valuable is work placing the dispute within the context of shifting regional power relations (Pugliese and Insisa, 2016: 43–56). But this shift has been long in coming, and diffuse changes in and of themselves do not tell us how particular disputes transform into dangerous flashpoints.…”

“…These occurred directly, for instance, in the escalating exchange of rhetoric, accusations, and historical claims. As Pugliese and Insisa (2016: 103–127) document, each side ‘mirrored’ the other, leading to the ‘inflation and later into the crystallization of “bubbles” of self-righteousness on both sides’. Spiral effects also worked indirectly, as inflation created domestic pressures and incentives for domestic actors to leverage the dispute to score political points, further provoking escalation and inflation (Hall, 2019).…”