Abstract

On 21 April 2012, about 1,000 Chinese and Japanese people gathered in Beijing to plant ‘commemorative trees’ to mark the 40th anniversary of the two countries’ diplomatic relation-ship. The ceremony was advertised as just one of many planned by both governments in 2012, which was designated ‘the year of civilian friendly exchanges’ between the two countries. A month earlier, at a press conference held in Beijing, the People’s Republic of China’s Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi stated that the ‘Chinese government places high importance on its rela-tionship with Japan’ and that the two countries had ‘come a long way in a wide range of fields’ since the normalization of their relationship in 1972. However, he also stated that China and Japan needed to boost ‘mutual strategic trust’ and to view the other ‘as an opportunity and partner for development’ (Xinhua 2012c).