That Beijing and Tokyo both underlined the need to take each other as a potential partner rather than a threat was an important outcome of their just concluded fourth high-level political dialogue.

Amid their seemingly endless impasse, that both sides have taken note of the damaging potential of mutual distrust and aspire to improve bilateral relations represents a step toward breaking the deadlock.

Many are accustomed to attributing the troubled bilateral ties to Japan's inability to adapt to the new reality of a rising China. But Beijing, too, is in the process trying to figure out what is the best approach to its growing impacts on regional and global affairs and the outside perceptions of them. In that sense, how Beijing and Tokyo see and approach each other will to a great extent determine the geopolitical landscape of Northeast Asia, if not the entire Asia-Pacific.