From AJISS-Commentary:
The term “strategic relationship of mutual benefit” has come to symbolize the improved relations between Japan and China in the past year or so. Being shorthand for a “mutually beneficial relationship based on common strategic interests,” this relationship was first mentioned and agreed to by the leaders of the two countries as a key concept in their future bilateral relations when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Beijing in October 2006, and was given shape when Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao visited Tokyo six months later.
The “common strategic interests” identified by Japan and China can be divided into two types: reciprocal and identical. The former includes the two countries extending their support to each other’s peaceful development, enhancing mutual trust and cultivating mutual understanding and friendship between their two peoples. The latter – although some may be identical only in principle and differ in details – includes common development, peace and stability in Northeast Asia, peaceful settlement of the nuclear issues on the Korean Peninsula (especially its denuclearization), reform of the Security Council and the United Nations as a whole, support for ASEAN’s larger role and promotion of regional cooperation in East Asia.
