For 40 years, Japan has quietly given foreign aid to China. Visiting Beijing, its leader said that would end, announcing a “new phase” in the relationship.
BEIJING — It has been eight years since China overtook Japan as the world’s second-largest economy. Yet the Japanese government continued to provide China with development assistance usually reserved for poorer countries. Until now.
In Beijing for the first official visit by a Japanese leader since 2011, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe acknowledged China’s economic dominance by announcing an end to the aid. Instead, he pledged to forge deeper economic and political cooperation, in what is widely seen as a hedge against the volatile, America-first policies of President Trump.
The announcement — coupled with new cooperation agreements Mr. Abe signed on Friday with his Chinese counterpart, Li Keqiang — signaled a significant shift in a relationship that has been haunted by war and occupation and is still strained by territorial disputes and other issues, which, publicly at least, have receded into the background.
“From competition to cooperation, the Japan-China relationship is shifting to a new phase now,” Mr. Abe said at an appearance with Mr. Li following a ceremonial welcome on Tiananmen Square that included a cannon salute and a review of troops under crisp blue skies.
“We are neighbors; we’re partners who will cooperate with each other, rather than be a threat to each other,” Mr. Abe said.
The Japanese leader, who had long sought an official visit to the Chinese capital, was accompanied by foreign and trade ministers and more than 1,000 businesspeople, who he said had come to discuss joint infrastructure and other projects in countries throughout the region.
That signaled a greater focus on trade and investment, and a departure from the 40-year program of aiding Chinese development. Many saw that aid program, which began in 1978 in what both countries described as a new start to their relationship, as a form of atonement for Japan’s brutal invasion of China in 1937, which set the stage for World War II.
Japan has “ended its historical mission” to assist China financially, Mr. Abe said at a reception after his arrival on Thursday night. “Now, Japan and China are playing indispensable roles for economic growth not only in Asia but also in the whole world,” he said.
Mr. Li said on Friday that relations were “back to their normal trajectory.”
“I hope for even more progress,” he said, specifying President Xi Jinping’s signature “One Belt, One Road” program for investing in infrastructure and other projects across Eurasia. Japan has pointedly refused to sign on to the initiative, which faces growing skepticism in some countries.
But Mr. Abe signaled a willingness to support new joint projects as long as China conducts them within international standards of transparency, environmental protection and economic viability, a spokesman later said.
