Xi Jinping and Shinzo Abe say it’s a fresh start for China and Japan. Hmm...
Behind the smiles lie clashing economic, political and territorial ambitions
The two leaders, who met on the fringes of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit, expressed a shared commitment to solving the problems posed by a belligerent regime in Pyongyang, to setting up a communication mechanism between their respective militaries to avoid accidental clashes and to arranging a three-way summit with South Korea’s leadership in the near future.
Smiling broadly as he shook the Chinese leader’s hand for the cameras, Abe said: “At the end of the meeting, President Xi said this is a meeting that marks a fresh start in relations between Japan and China. I completely feel the same way.”
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In Manila, two days later, Abe went one step further and claimed relations between Tokyo and Beijing had improved to the point the two leaders might visit each other’s capitals as soon as next year.
Yet the discussions at such meetings are telegraphed and choreographed long in advance, as are the replies and – critically – the areas best avoided.
North Korea was always going to be an area on which the two leaders broadly agreed, even though Beijing and Tokyo have very different attitudes on how to approach the problem of their nuclear-armed neighbour.
Still, it would have been encouraging to the regional community to see the two major powers concur, while it is surely significant – and not a coincidence – that China had just announced plans to send a special envoy to North Korea.