Xi buddies up to Abe amidst trade fallout - Bloomberg

As reported by Bloomberg, this week's crumbling markets are highlighting the still-deteriorating conditions of global trade systems taking place largely at the hands of US protectionist trade policy and enflaming tactics being used by US President Donald Trump and his administration, and the current state of affairs in the US-China trade dispute is seeing friendly ties being made between China and Japan.

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Abe heads to Beijing this week to celebrate the 40th anniversary of a peace-and-friendship treaty between the Asian powerhouses, which have a long history of bad blood due in part to Japan’s colonial invasions of China and atrocities committed during World War II. 

A slow warming of ties between the neighbors has accelerated after both found themselves under attack from Trump on trade. Although Japan’s alliance with the U.S. keeps the nation in lockstep with Washington on most geopolitical issues, Abe has moved to shore up economic ties with China -- its biggest trading partner. Xi, in turn, sees Japan as a way to mitigate the risk of a trade war with the U.S.

“Economic-and-trade cooperation is the ballast and propeller of the China-Japan relationship, laying the keystone for the mutual political trust,” Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesman Gao Feng said last week.

Abe is preparing to bring a 500-strong business delegation with him to discuss cooperation in third countries, as pledged during Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to Japan in May. 

They are also both pushing for a quick conclusion to Regional Comprehensive Economic Agreement, a trade deal involving 16 countries in the Asia-Pacific.