Closest model, rival and fateful enemy

The influence of late nineteenth and twentieth-century Japan on China is one of the more perplexing problems in modern Chinese history, owing to the frequency of overt hostility between the two countries across the centuries. In this chapter I argue that Japan’s influence on twentieth-century China rivaled that of the US and the Soviet Union. By tracing concrete Chinese adaptations in economic and information policies and in legal codes, I observe that the peak of Japanese influence came during the “New Policies” of the 1900s. However, despite the subsequent deterioration in relations and political inconvenience in recognizing Japanese influence, the legacy of these adaptations continued in quieter ways as a result of the continued competition with Japan. While imperialism was clearly a key factor, the chapter also emphasizes the self-driven nature of change, and Japan’s function in the eyes of China’s leaders as the most practical conduit for the import of Western ideas and techniques into the country