Fish dealers at a Beijing market appear shocked after China banned all seafood imports from Japan in response to its release of treated radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean.
‘Many people won’t eat seafood’, an industry insider says of Chinese consumers, and the potential spreading of this mentality represents a ‘dangerous sign for the industry’.
“Hot economics, cold politics” continues to underscore the China-Japan relationship. Even as political relations fray, economic ties have never been stronger.
Deeply intertwined economic connections between China and Japan – built up over decades – are seen as the bedrock for stability in China-Japan relations, despite deep-rooted historical disputes and political mistrust.