Flexibility needed in trading links with Tokyo

China and Japan need to increase the flexibility of their business ties and reduce administrative intervention when political divergence occurs, trade experts said.

Trade between the countries declined in 2013 despite the devaluation of the Japanese yen and China becoming the world's largest goods trader.

Chen Yongjun, a professor at the Renmin University of China School of Business in Beijing, said even though political tensions were primarily responsible for the slide in trade last year, prospects were improving in the first half of 2014 as shipments increased after two years of declines.