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Zhuang Pinghui

Since China and Japan established diplomatic ties in 1972, cooperation between the two countries has improved and increased ... until disputes over history and territory froze bilateral relations in recent years.
Along with the rising political tensions came shrinking trade and economic ties as the disputes aroused nationalist sentiments in China.
Still, Japan remains a popular tourist destination for the Chinese people.
We explore the “frenemy” relationship between the two countries.
The region needs stability, not uncertainty

Rising political tensions
- Beijing has been angered by government-approved history books in Japan that either downplayed or completely censored the Nanking massacre. The massacre occurred over more than a month, from December 1937, when Japanese soldiers captured Nanjing during the war and mass murdered Chinese civilians.
- Although Tokyo has acknowledged that a mass murder did take place, the two countries have never agreed on the number of people who died. Beijing claims the death toll is 300,000 while Japanese historians say it numbers from several thousand to 200,000.
Beijing aims to head off criticism from Tokyo over activities in disputed waters, observers say
- Beijing has protested over visits by Japanese leaders – Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his predecessor Junichiro Koizumi – to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, where wartime criminals are commemorated.
- China and Japan both lay claim over the Diaoyu Islands, or Senkaku Islands as Japanese call it. Bilateral ties deteriorated rapidly in September 2012, when Tokyo bought three of the disputed islands from their “private owner”. Anti-Japan protests and boycotts, as well as riots in some cities, broke out across China over the matter.
- State leaders Xi Jinping and Shinzo Abe have met several times at international events, but state visits have stopped, as have minister-level visits. The last visit by Japanese foreign minister Fumio Kishida was in 2011.
China wants to hold high-level talks with Japan to improve ties, says envoy

Shrinking economic ties
- Trade between China and Japan suffered severely after bilateral ties froze partly over Tokyo’s buying of the three disputed islands in 2012.
- Trade growth with Japan shrank 19 percentage points in 2012 to -3.9 per cent but expanded slightly the following year. In the first 10 months of 2015, trade growth dropped 11.19 per cent year-on-year.
- The Sino-Japanese High-Level Economic Dialogue, a bilateral minister-level meeting, has not been held since 2010.

But it’s not all doom and gloom for Sino-Japanese relations.
Despite the bad blood between the two sides’ political leaders in recent years, Japan remains a popular tourist destination for the Chinese people.
Civil exchanges
- With Japan’s rising popularity as a key destination among Chinese tourists, some 5 million Chinese people travelled to the country last year. In stark contrast, visits by Japanese tourists to China have dropped for five consecutive years. Some 2.5 million Japanese visited China last year – one million less than in 2010.
Chinese tourists’ ‘shameful’ trolley brawl at Tokyo airport makes it on Japan’s TV news
- In terms of financial aid, Japan’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) programme has provided China with about 3.31 trillion yen (HK$230 billion) in loan aid, 157 billion yen in grant aid, and 181 billion yen in technical cooperation funds since it started in 1979. Projects in China include large-scale infrastructure projects such as roads, airports and power stations, as well as infrastructure projects in medical and environmental protection areas.


Wang Yi’s talks with Japanese official suggest meeting between Xi and Ishiba lies ahead

China says military plane entered Japan’s airspace because of ‘unexpected obstruction’

Wary of China, US ranks Japan ‘first’ among Aukus partners: State Department No 2 official

China says it drove away Japanese fishing boat from waters near disputed Diaoyu Islands

China-Japan relations

Once friends, now foes? Unearthing the uneasy relationship between China and Japan

The less-than-delighted expressions on Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s faces in this 2014 handshake underscore the uneasy relationship between the two states. Photo: Reuters

(121110) -- QINGDAO, Nov. 10, 2012 (Xinhua) -- A worker arranges knitwear for export to Japan in a garment enterprise in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, Nov. 10, 2012. China's trade surplus widened in October as growth of exports accelerated while that of imports remaining steady, data from the country's customs showed Saturday. China's exports rose 11.6 percent from one year earlier in October, beating market expectations for a rise of 9 percent and stronger than the 9.9-percent increase registered in September, according to the General Administration of Customs. (Xinhua/Liang Xiaopeng) (lfj)

Pigeons fly in the sky during a memorial ceremony at the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders on China's first National Memorial Day for Nanjing Massacre Victims in Nanjing city, east China's Jiangsu province on December 13, 2014. A series of ceremonies was held to remember those killed when imperial troops raped and pillaged the then-capital of Nanjing in 1937. AFP PHOTO / JOHANNES EISELE

FILE - In this April 11, 2010 file photo, Chinese tourists take a break after shopping in Tokyo's posh Ginza district. A tourism organization says the number of foreign tourists to Japan rose to a record high in 2010 on the back of booming demand from Asia. The Japan National Tourism Organization said Thursday, Jan. 27, 2011 a record 8.61 million foreign tourists came to Japan last year, up 26.8 percent from a year earlier. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi, File)

News

China

Diplomacy

Lots of bad blood over wartime history and territorial disputes, but Japan’s still the place to go for Chinese tourists


China 101

Explainers: Politics