JAPAN-CHINA RELATIONS: RIVALRY FOR EAST ASIA LEADERSHIP

The article is devoted to the pressing issue of the transformation of China's and Japan's foreign policy strategies in East Asia in recent years. The main feature of these countries' policies in the region is the domination of the economic approaches as the basis for the practical implementation of the "soft power" concept. However, the two countries do not give up the military representative acts, particularly with the use of the navy in order to demonstrate the national military might and readiness to defend their political interests through military means. China's tactic is to switch the consideration of a number of problematic issues with other countries in the region from the multilateral level to the bilateral one. Japan, rapidly losing the position of the centre of the region's economic development, tends in its foreign policy to increasingly rely on the US support and it is modernizing its army at a quick rate, preparing for a military confrontation with China. Japan and the United States are increasingly striving to create the "anti-Chinese coalition" in the Asia-Pacific region with the prospect of its institutional design within the framework of the military-political organization of NATO type. In this regard, China increasingly opposes their policies at all levels, sparing no effort and money to find new allies, such as South Korea, as well as trying to improve its relations with Taiwan. In spite of the political differences, China and Japan increase their economic cooperation and deepen economic interdependence. In the context of enhancing economic cooperation and simultaneous strengthening of the military-political confrontation between China and Japan, the further development of the Sino-Japanese relations is becoming a key issue for the economic and military security of the region.