Katsuji Nakazawa is a Tokyo-based senior staff and editorial writer at Nikkei. He spent seven years in China as a correspondent and later as China bureau chief. He was the 2014 recipient of the Vaughn-Ueda International Journalist prize.

Shinzo Abe, Japan's assassinated former prime minister, left, and Chinese President leader Xi Jinping entered office a month apart in 2012. (Nikkei montage/Reuters/Getty Images/Ken Kobayashi)
Chinese leader pays unusual respect to his arch rival of 10 years