Hello from Tokyo. Much attention has been focused this week on the APEC gathering in San Francisco. Diplomats often tell me that a summit between leaders is already set up for success when the decision to hold the meeting is made. In other words, knowing that such events take a huge amount of time and effort to prepare for, governments only agree to hold them when they have some degree of certainty over a positive outcome.
We have witnessed a lot of energy on all sides around the U.S.-China and Japan-China leaders' summits in San Francisco. The U.S. and China made several high-level visits to each other ahead of their summit, while Japan's top diplomat held a three-and-a-half-hour discussion in Beijing a week ago to prepare for its meeting.
In that sense, there may not have been much room for ad-libbing between top leaders in San Francisco. However, what struck me most about Wednesday's meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, was the broad smile on Xi's face from start to finish. I covered APEC in Beijing in 2014, when then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met with Xi. The Chinese leader arrived late for the meeting, did not appear friendly and failed to make any kind of eye contact with Abe as they shook hands.
At that time, relations between Tokyo and Beijing were at a nadir, with anti-Japanese protests spreading after the country's government nationalized the Senkaku Islands, which China claims and calls Diaoyu. The meeting lasted only 20 minutes despite being the first such event in three years, with Xi's stern facial expressions setting the tone.
So how did it go this time? Judging by Xi's smile, perhaps he felt it was important to meet with the U.S. amid the economic slump at home. Faltering growth has intensified competition in sectors such as e-commerce, especially during the recent Singles Day shopping season . Nikkei Asia has reported extensively on China this week, including on how both it and the U.S. prepared for their summit .
No matter how conciliatory Beijing was this time, no one would expect U.S.-China relations to improve anytime soon. American and Chinese companies are competing fiercely everywhere, especially in Southeast Asia, as our Big Story reports . China also appears to be using Japanese machine tools, dubbed "mother machines," to accelerate its nuclear development efforts and build up its military power, as detailed in our investigative series of stories.
On a lighter note, do you read manga or comics? In Japan, manga is a really popular format for studying a wide variety of things. I have liked historical manga since I was a child, and now my son, an elementary school sixth-grader, enjoys browsing such books. According to a Nikkei Asia article, many children in India have developed a similar habit .
Finally, please join us on Nov. 21 for a webinar with Chris Miller, author of "Chip War," and Mario Morales, an expert analyst at IDC, where we will delve into the untold stories of the global battle for semiconductor dominance. Register here .
Wishing you a wonderful weekend!
Shin Nakayama
Editor-in-chief, Nikkei Asia
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