China and Japan mending frail relationship one step at a time

It took diplomats from China and Japan months of intense negotiations to produce a terse but carefully worded agreement.

To pave the way for a summit between leaders of the two estranged Asian neighbours last November, the document - also known as the "four-point agreement" - was crafted with convenient ambiguity in both Chinese and Japanese.

Although the two texts still contained discrepancies, both sides appeared content. "We managed to agree on what we could agree on," one Japanese diplomat recalled.

But one thing had slipped past unattended - an English version acceptable to both countries.

So when Beijing released its own English version shortly after publishing the agreement in Chinese on November 7, Japanese diplomats said they were "surprised by the Chinese side's readiness" and irritated by what they considered to be points of "mistranslation".

A complaint was lodged to Beijing while Tokyo raced against time to produce a "more accurate" English version.

Both countries have now moved on to focus on rebuilding relations, but the wilful or otherwise lost-in-translation episode underscores the frailty of bilateral ties.