China-Japan Ties: Future More Important than History

China-Japan ties will thrive in the future, Kazuo Ogura, former Japanese ambassador to France, said in his speech at this year’s Beijing-Tokyo Forum in mid-October. His words represent the aspirations of insightful Japanese people for continued friendship between the two countries.  After nearly a decade of “chill”, China-Japan ties took a turn for the better this year. In early May, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang paid an official visit to Japan; in late October, Shinzo Abe made the first visit to China by a Japanese prime minister in seven years. A commentator seeking an appropriate metaphor for this resumption of high-level visits described it as pressing the “reset button” for healthy development of China-Japan relations.  Abe’s China visit occurred at particularly symbolic moments, described in Chinese as the three “coincidences.” First, this year marks the 40th anniversary of the signing of the China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship. Second, it is also the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening up. Third, the visit took place at the very moment when escalating trade tensions between China and the United States were creating changes in the world geopolitical landscape.  By calling them three “coincidences”, the author employs exaggeration to make the article more appealing. Actually, as the English poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744) once observed: “all chance, direction, which thou canst not see”. […]

Oct 29, 2018

China and Japan Promote Third-Party Market Cooperation

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made an official visit to China from October 25-27,as China and Japan jointly announced on October 12. China and Japan have expressed their joint intention to vigorously promote cooperation in third-party markets. Why? What is the meaning and role of this cooperation? Δ President Xi Jinping meets with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Beijing on Oct. 26th. Li Tao / Xinhua Firstly, both China and Japan are countries with relative excess in endowment of production factors such as capital and production capacity. After the domestic economy develops to a certain stage, it is no longer able to rely on continuous large-scale domestic investment to obtain endogenous development, as is seen in periods of rapid economic growth. Motivation must rely on improving management and technology, especially through the core technologies of major industrial sectors to gain new development momentum, relying on technological innovation as a new impetus for economic development. Secondly, most of the countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative are developing countries, and some are emerging industrial countries in the process of catching up. They are emerging from poverty, with their economies just preparing to take off or just beginning to take off. In this stage, there is an urgent need for capital and technology. In particular, it is more necessary to build […]

Oct 28, 2018