Optimum course for China, Japan is fuller economic cooperation

Sino-Japanese economic rivalry has begun to take on forms that could scarcely have been imagined only a few years ago.

This reflects a diplomatic adroitness on Beijing's part which Tokyo seems unable to match. That said, however, rivalry between the two powers is wasteful of overall Asian resources.

Chinese President Xi Jinping's triumphal drive along London's famous Mall to Buckingham Palace for his recent audience with Britain's Queen Elizabeth II was more than just pomp and ceremony: it capped China's success in achieving what Japan is also eager to do, which is to sell nuclear reactors overseas. China seems poised also to win contracts for supplying high-speed rail networks to markets as diverse as the United States and Indonesia (not to mention others in South-east Asia), while Japan does not appear able to achieve similar success with its world famous Shinkansen system.