Well the liberals think China and CPC is evil and the right prefer western politics because they share economic attitudes. The capitalists prefer the west because again that's the same game. They don't get China, they don't control how it functions, they can't enslave and extract things they want whenever they want. It's the same problem and attitudes as China faces from western elites, except to a much smaller scale. Japan often plays diplomacy and realpolitik like an east asian country. Honestly there is little difference between the three major ones (not counting NK) on this front. Equally aggressive and passive in the same areas. Equally vocal and quiet.
Ideally Japan is left alone by China and Japan in turn also leaves it alone. Some mutually agreeable compromise on disputes formed to avoid pointless war. What ensues is working political relations and decent economic ones. Japan doesn't want to be a vassal of China and nor should it be. China shouldn't have to deal with Japan US military alliance but it is. This current situation won't find solutions until China rises further and cements a position where Japan will respect China in a way that discourages confrontations between the two. In turn, China would need to compromise as well. This overly hawkish and chauvinistic attitude won't help China. Japan should recognise WW2 and the three nations should work together to get past that. Then a clean start and working relations will be good for Asians, much to the chagrin of western elites if that world were to ever become realised.
This reminded me of the time when Yukio Hatoyama was PM of Japan from 2009 to 2010. Under his tenure, Japan was more East-oriented. Relations with China and South Korea was warming. It almost looked like for a time, like Japan could at least go on a different path. But unfortunately, his tenure didn't last long. He resigned after threats of a no-confidence vote due to some economic performance expectation issue. Successive PMs after him were hit and miss and they too didn't last long. Until Abe became PM.
Things between China and Japan was going relatively ok until the 2012 Diaoyu Islands dispute. What Japan did was absolutely wrong. But the reaction in China with their intense anti-Japanese protest progressing to rioting was in my opinion not good. If you disagree, just observe your horror and anger at the other anti-China protest-riots in Vietnam, and Myanmar. Its probably what the Japanese public had felt when they saw footages of that protest-riot in China. Additionally, that protest gave much ammunition to the Western and Japanese right-wing media to fear monger about China. Since by that time, Abe was the PM, this was the perfect propaganda coup he needed. Then the rest is history.
In this regard with China-Japan relations. I do feel that China at that time had to take some of the blame for failing to reign in the extremes of Chinese nationalism. Fortunately, China has since then managed to keep its own extreme nationalists in check. We don't see anymore of those crazy hate-filled protest-riots like back in 2012 despite the intense Cold War-like atmosphere of today.
But the past is the past. That opportunity for rapprochement between China and Japan between 2009-2012 was missed. It was mainly Japan's fault. But both sides were not entirely innocent. So now, Japan is as belligerent as ever. Their leaders, fully submitted to the US. The best way now for China to deal with Japan is to build up overwhelming military might to safeguard its economic development. Time is on China's side. Eventually, Japan will have to learn that its place truly belongs in Asia, not in the West. Hopefully they don't choose to learn it the hard way.
