China and Japan pledge to take their relationship in ‘new historic direction’
BEIJING — The leaders of China and Japan vowed Friday to open a new chapter in their often-fraught relationship and strengthen financial and trading ties between the world’s secondand third-largest economies.
The pledge, accompanied by multibillion-dollar deals, comes as China is mired in a protracted trade war with the United States, the world’s biggest economy and Japan’s most important security ally.
It underscored Chinese President Xi Jinping’s efforts to lessen his country’s exposure to the American market, but also noted a certain amount of pragmatism from the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe.
“From competition to coexistence, Japanese and Chinese bilateral relations have entered a new phase,” Mr. Abe told reporters in Beijing after meeting with China’s top two leaders. “With President Xi Jinping, I would like to carve out a new era for China and Japan.”
Mr. Xi also struck a remarkably upbeat note about the neighbors’ relationship, saying they should move in a “new historic direction” by working together at a time of growing global “instability and uncertainties.”
“Sound and stable development of China-Japan relations would fundamentally benefit the people of both nations, and that is something that the regional and the international community want,” he said.
This was their first official meeting in seven years and was a sharp departure from their last encounter in Beijing, on the sidelines of a multilateral forum in 2014. Then, neither Mr. Abe nor Mr. Xi could muster the faintest hint of a smile and they could hardly wait to get their handshake for the photographers over and done with.
That visit came during the days of a heated territorial dispute that brought the countries to the brink of military conflict.
That dispute, over a set of islands controlled by Japan, has not been resolved. But this year, on the 40th anniversary of the Sino-Japanese friendship treaty, the two leaders are finding a way to put their differences behind, superficially at least.
Mr. Abe was treated to a full red-carpet welcome by Premier Li Keqiang, inspecting an honor guard with him and being celebrated at a reception in the opulent Great Hall of the People.
This was accompanied by the somewhat startling sight of Japanese and Chinese flags flying together along the wide central boulevard between Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, fluttering in front of a huge portrait of Mao Zedong, the founding father of Communist China.
Mr. Abe brought 500 business representatives with him, and Japanese and Chinese companies had signed deals worth $18 billion during the visit, Mr. Li said.
Their two central banks also signed a three-year credit swap agreement that will allow them to exchange $30 billion worth of each other’s currencies, a measure that will make it easier for banks to facilitate trade between the two countries.
“Vigorous trade will bring the bonds between our people ever closer,” Mr. Abe said Friday.