Opportunity For Warmer Sino-Japanese Ties

October 2006 | Ratings Update

New Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is due to visit China on October 8 for fence-mending talks, at a time when relations between the two countries are at their worst in decades. Chinese officials have refused to meet Abe's predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, owing to his repeated visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine, seen by Beijing as a symbol of Japan's militaristic past. Aside from ongoing differences over their wartime history, ties have been strained by friction over the development of gas fields in disputed parts of the East China Sea. Thawing relations would be a key positive for both sides, given

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