There is still a mountain ahead for neighbors

The changes in Japan's defense policy basically herald the military rise of the country, under the cloak of "active pacifism" and "strategic diplomacy". And by recruiting independent military forces, seeking help from the US-Japan alliance, and participating more in international and regional security affairs, in a bid to handle its self-promoted "China threat", Tokyo has cast a shadow over the future of Sino-Japanese cooperation.

Seeing China as a major security threat in its neighborhood has actually led to increasing Japanese media coverage demonizing China. Such reports have misled some Japanese people and undermined the China-Japan Joint Statement on Advancing the Strategic Relationship of Mutual Benefit issued in 2008, which proposes that both sides support each other's peaceful development and endeavor to instill in both peoples the will to seek greater cooperation.

Thus both nations still have a mountain to climb in a bid to reach acceptance of their new identities.

Mutual trust cannot be rebuilt in a day. But the fact is, the long-standing friction over the Yasukuni Shrine visits and the Diaoyu Islands dispute have a lot to do with Tokyo's right-leaning tendency and aggressive defense policies. Hence, enhancing strategic trust between China and Japan needs changes in Japan's approach to bilateral ties in particular.

As Xi reiterated during his APEC meeting with Abe, both nations should abide by the previously inked four political documents, namely: the China-Japan Joint Communique of 1972, the China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1978, the China-Japan Joint Declaration of 1998, and the Hu-Fukada statement of 2008.

In addition, to deepen bilateral cooperation, Beijing and Tokyo have to seek to expand their common interests. And in the context of economic globalization and their changing geopolitical roles, mutual trust and recognition are needed more than ever to maintain stability in the Asia-Pacific region.

The author is director of the Institute of Japanese Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.