Editorial | Trump a good reason for China, Japan thaw
Crisis of trust between two countries with fragile economies has to be overcome for both their sakes
If anything were due for a reset it would be the strained relations between China and Japan. Ties between the most powerful economies in Asia are rocky at best after a decade in which Tokyo drifted closer to Washington and built stronger ties with Taiwan.
With the pending White House arrival of Donald Trump and his protectionist agenda, both Beijing and Tokyo will have motivation to improve relations.
A first step to turning things around is to understand just what state they are in. The grim assessment was provided at the influential Beijing-Tokyo Forum this week by former Japanese prime minister Yasuo Fukuda, who warned the countries suffer from a “crisis of dialogue, comprehensive understanding and mutual trust”, and urged their leaders to take decisive action.
Both had failed to adapt to China’s growing power. “This crisis must be overcome,” he said.
Mutual public sentiment has dropped to its lowest point in decades, as relations have soured over territorial disputes in the East China Sea, Japan’s restrictions on high-end semiconductor sales to China and a Chinese ban on Japanese seafood imports imposed after waste water releases from the disabled Fukushima nuclear plant.
