China is changing its leadership in this fall as Hu Jintao is succeeded by Xi Jinping, Where does the new leadership take its economy to, and manage its economic and political relations with Japan, China’s largest importing country and second largest exporting destination?

With the deep economic integration and interdependence, many consider Sino-Japan economic relations as the important bilateral economic tie for both countries despite their often difficult political relations even since Japan arrested a fisherman near Senkaku islands in September 2010. The latest round of the political tension, following the decision by the Japanese government to nationalize the Senkaku islands in 2012 and the subsequent spreads of anti-Japanese riots in many major Chinese cities, however, dramatically changed the landscape. These developments took place when China has been going through the economic downturn coincided with the ever increasing power of state owned enterprises and the growing economic disparity among its people. The symposium, featuring the key note speech by Professor Kjeld Erik Brødsgaard of Copenhagen Business School on the state owned enterprises under the new Chinese leadership, and the panel discussion with Professor Chiharu Takenaka of RIkkyo University on civil society and markets, will explore the latest developments of the Chinese economy and its ties with Japan., and sheds lights on the evolution of markets and civil society.