Beijing sends pandas instead of tanks – foreign countries

The Nissan cars were lit and the sushi shops were demolished. Thousands of protesters roamed the streets of Beijing shouting "Down with the Japanese". Six years ago, the quarrel around some uninhabited islands of the East China Sea between China and Japan reached its peak. This dispute has not been resolved to date. And it is far from the only gap between the two countries. The biggest accusation of Beijing: Japan had not yet reinforced the atrocities committed against the Chinese people during World War II.

But despite the many discrepancies: between the two storms, suddenly the sun prevails. For the first time in seven years, a Japanese head of government goes to China Thursday in the People's Republic of China. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is a tough politician on China, will participate in celebrations in Beijing on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Japan-China peace treaty. After talks with his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang, Abe will also meet Friday with the head of state and party, Xi Jinping.

Fukushima vegetables

Abe and Li want to sign several trade deals, including the resumption of imports of agricultural products from Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, where a nuclear power plant was damaged in 2011 following a major earthquake. Both countries also want to work more closely together on future technologies such as artificial intelligence and autonomous driving. In addition, Chinese leaders want for the first time in years the Japanese with a loan of two pandas.

Japan is one of the most advanced countries in the world, but suffers from a largely saturated and undeveloped market for 20 years.

The aspirant China, meanwhile, wants to become the first country of high technology in the coming years with the program "Made in China 2025" and plans to invest several hundred billion dollars. Chinese leaders are looking for investments in this area. The two countries could complement each other so well. However, the political conflicts of recent years have considerably complicated cooperation.

Ironically, Donald Trump now seems to be the two main rivals together. The US president has been fighting China for months, accusing the Beijing government of "unfair trade policy". It has already imposed more than 40% of Chinese exports to the United States with punitive tariffs. China is now urgently seeking new trading partners.

New Abe plan

But Japan is also in the sights of Trump because of its huge trade surplus with the United States. Trump ended negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement. The agreement aimed to involve all states in the Asia-Pacific region, with the exception of China. By rivalry with emerging China, the TPP was a particularly important concern for the right-wing government led by Abe. After Trump's closing of the TPP negotiations, Abe must realign his strategy.

Trade between China and Japan has already increased significantly in recent months. In the past year alone, Japanese exports to China have increased by more than 20%.