There is still a mountain ahead for neighbors

This year, the relationship between China and Japan reached an all-time low since the normalization of diplomatic ties in 1972, and this is reflected in the attitudes of people in both countries toward bilateral ties.

The brief meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Beijing in November, the first of its kind, suggested a thaw might be on the cards, but destabilizing factors are still hampering bilateral ties from fundamental improvement.

It was, of course, just diplomatic rhetoric. Tokyo's rightist leaders have always been a grave threat to the political mutual trust between China and Japan. And the current Abe administration, of all Japanese governments since the Cold War ended in the early 1990s, has made it clear that Japan wants to be an Asian leader without being confined by the postwar order.