Last week, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Chinese President Hu Jintao met -- for the first time in a year -- on the sidelines of the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Chile. Ever since Tokyo and Beijing restored diplomatic ties in the 1970s, there has been an underlying belief that political and economic relations between Japan and China should be considered separately, because of the different political systems in the two countries.
However, it must also be noted that political problems -- in particular security issues -- can be obstacles to developing economic ties once they have reached a certain level. Without stable political relations, concern will persist over the continuity of trade ties and the safety of invested assets.
Sino-Japanese relations were marred recently by the intrusion of a Chinese submarine into Japanese territorial waters. China officially admitted to the intrusion and expressed its regret that the vessel was a Chinese nuclear submarine.