China and Japan need to move past their political disputes and strengthen economic ties to deal with an increasingly chaotic global order, officials from both countries urged at a key summit on Thursday.
Relations between the Asian powers have become increasingly strained in recent years, aggravated by Japan’s move to assist US efforts to curb chip exports to China and the brutal knife attacks targeting Japanese residents in China in June and September.
But there were signs of a renewed desire to reset ties at the annual Tokyo-Beijing Forum, as attendees from both sides stressed the need for greater cooperation.
“The multilateral free-trade system is collapsing, and multiple crises – including global warming and food and energy security – are also getting nearer, day by day,” said Wu Jianghao, China’s ambassador to Japan.
China and Japan need to work more closely together in several fields to deal with this growing uncertainty, “particularly in how to make proper use of AI”, Wu said.
Our efforts now should go to at least ensuring free trade between China and Japan, and then we can think about global free trade
Lou Jiwei, China’s finance minister from 2013-16, said China and Japan need to cooperate to protect themselves amid the global economic uncertainty unleashed by the re-election of Donald Trump as US president.