China has a "deeply ingrained" need to spar with Japan and other Asian neighbors over territory, because the ruling Communist Party uses the disputes to maintain strong domestic support, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in an interview.
Clashes with neighbors, notably Japan, play to popular opinion, Abe said, given a Chinese education system that emphasizes patriotism and "anti-Japanese sentiment."
Abe's theory on the entrenched motivation behind China's recent naval aggression helps explain why he has spent more effort trying to counter the Chinese than make peace with them: He thinks the fierce dispute with China over the Japan-held Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea isn't going away anytime soon.