The Chinese side's eagerness could be seen in the body language of Du Chuanzhi, the chairman of Rizhao Port Group, in early March.
"We want to normalize Sino-Japanese trade soon," Du told this correspondent, practically reaching over the table at a Beijing hotel where delegates were staying during this year's session of the National People's Congress, China's parliament.
The port operator mainly handles commodities from Australia and other resource-producing nations in the Americas and elsewhere. That it is looking so intently at Japan now is a reflection of the influence of Chinese President Xi Jinping's "One Belt, One Road" project. This vision of invigorating overland and maritime trade between China and Europe is meant to advance a number of Chinese interests, including the expansion of yuan-based commerce and the creation of outlets for industrial overcapacity.
Given the project's importance for Xi, Rizhao Port, too, finds itself pouring investment into new wharves, roads, rail links and other infrastructure. All of this is meant to increase the flow of trade to inland China, Central Asia and beyond, Du said. Japan and South Korea are "very important" in this regard, he declared.
Situated on the Yellow Sea coast between Tianjin and Shanghai, the port of Rizhao in Shandong Province is one of the closest in China to Japan or South Korea. Its connection with Japan runs particularly deep, with Japanese overseas aid having financed its construction in the late 1970s. Plans are being considered for a regular shipping route to either the greater Tokyo or Osaka area, Du said.
Beijing calling
Cheng Yonghua has for months been making the case that the One Belt, One Road vision ought to stretch all the way to Japan, where he serves as the Chinese ambassador.
Some in Japan would argue that the historical Silk Road (which Xi's project harks back to) had its eastern terminus not in China's Xian but in Nara, Cheng told reporters here in March, referring to the ancient Japanese capital. He called on Japan to join in building the 21st-century version of the trade route and become a member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Chinese-led multilateral lender from which Tokyo and Washington have remained aloof.
Chinese local government officials are particularly keen on economic cooperation with Japan. Hunan Province Gov. Du Jiahao paid a visit to Masato Kitera, the Japanese ambassador to China at the time, during the National People's Congress session to try to drum up more investment in his province, whose capital Changsha is already home to a number of Japanese-owned businesses.
Yet Japanese companies look noticeably impassive in the face of such persuasion. They have their reasons: China's economy is slowing, even as local labor costs soar. Xi's penchant for heavy-handed rule adds another element of uncertainty.
"A lot of apprehension is being voiced internally over this vague sense of 'China risk,'" said a senior executive at a major Japanese trading house.
Sino-Japanese trade is showing no signs of recovery, tumbling nearly 12% in 2015.
Unhelpfully, improvement in relations at the political level still seems lacking. Xi's basic policy toward Japan, that of gradual rapprochement, has remained consistent since he and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held their first summit in November 2014. But the two countries still get along awkwardly -- witness Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's refusal for two months to agree to requests for a telephone conference with counterpart Fumio Kishida.
Although talks with economic policy departments of the Chinese government and at the provincial level go smoothly, "whenever China's foreign ministry is involved, it's difficult to make headway," a person familiar with bilateral relations said.
Given its politically sensitive nature, Chinese policy toward Japan may become even less flexible as next year's reshuffle of top leadership in the Communist Party approaches. Memories of the anti-Japanese protests of 2012, when the party last held its quinquennial national congress, remain fresh at the Japanese companies that were targeted and those that just watched the unrest. When it comes to Chinese calls for investment, it seems the Japanese side is not yet ready to pick up the phone.
source by asia.nikkei.com
Thank you for reading the article about China tries, with little success, to get Japan onboard Silk Road project in our site update information and news popular in asia and world
if you want to share this article please include links as Source, and when this article useful please bookmark this page in your web browser,
by pressing Ctrl + D on your keyboard keys.