‘New trajectory’: Abe heads to China as Trump trade threats help bury old tensions

Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, will arrive in Beijing on Thursday amid a thaw in bilateral ties that would have seemed impossible just a few years ago.

Relations between the Asia’s two biggest economies deteriorated dramatically in 2012 when the Japanese government “nationalised” a group of disputed islands in the East China Sea known as the Senkakus in Japan and the Diaoyu in China.

The move sparked officially sanctioned protests in several Chinese cities, forcing Japanese firms to temporarily close their premises. The dispute hit Japanese investment in China, whose coast guard vessels continue to make regular incursions into waters around the islands.