How China-Japan relations will benefit from new crisis management agreement
Zhou Bo says the hard-won air and maritime agreement signed between China and Japan is an indication of the vulnerability of relations between the two Asian powers, and calls on both to build on this good start
The agreement comes as a huge relief. Officially described as a “maritime and air liaison mechanism between the defence ministries of China and Japan”, it is meant to defuse tensions arising out of close encounters between Chinese and Japanese military aircraft and naval vessels. Although there is yet to be an incident, the chances of dangerous encounters are on the rise with each passing year.
Xi likely to make official Japan visit as two sides try to mend fences
Japan’s zone, created by the US after the second world war, is much larger than Japanese territory and extends to within 130km of China’s coast. Thus, Japan’s hysterical reaction to China’s much smaller zone was strange.