China/Japan: Just when it looked like China and Japan had at least smoothed over their differences after a blistering row last month, tensions between Asia's two heavyweights threatened to ratchet up again after a series of tit-for-tat snubs and insults.
The two are due to sit down in Beijing next week for talks to try and calm tempers. The meeting promises to be a fiery affair.
Ties between the neighbours hit a post-war low in April when thousands of Chinese took to the streets to protest against Japan's wartime aggression and the publication of a revised schoolbook, which Beijing says whitewashes Japan's wartime history.
The protests were also to voice opposition to Japan's bid for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.
Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi apologised for his country's war record, and the situation settled down somewhat, but cracks in the uneasy diplomatic truce began to emerge last week when Chinese vice premier Wu Yi flew home early from a fence-mending visit.
The visit by Ms Wu, who is the most senior woman in the Chinese government and the highest-ranking official to visit Japan in two years, was widely read as a sign of warmer relations.
Ms Wu was angry because Mr Koizumi refused to stop his visits to the Yasukuni war shrine, which honours top war criminals among the 2.5 million Japanese war dead. The Japanese sought to play down the significance of her sudden departure, which was seen as a deliberate snub to Tokyo.
But there was another setback yesterday when Japan accused China of hypocrisy for starting work on a gas project in disputed waters of the South China Sea.
China and Japan are at odds over one area of the East China Sea, with Tokyo demanding that Beijing halt energy exploration and provide data on its gas development projects there.
Japan's minister of economy, trade and industry, Shoichi Nakagawa, said the move by Beijing was "outrageous" and would definitely affect the outcome of next week's peace talks.
Diplomats say that the importance of economic relations between the two countries ultimately means the row will blow over.
Trade between the two countries last year was worth about €140 million, and that should ensure the row does not degenerate into anything that would seriously destabilise the region.
"There is a lot of sabre-rattling, but it's not just that," said one European diplomat in Beijing. "The bottom line is that the economic relationship is too important to let any of this risk diluting it. But there's a lot to get through to get to that bottom line."
Analysts reckon that it is the bid for the UN Security Council that is at the core of the dispute, although the other issues are important, as it is a sign that Japan is keen to match its economic power in the region with military power and political influence.
"The Chinese will do anything to stop Japan getting a seat on the Security Council," the diplomat said.
In particular, China is worried about how Japan seeks to further its relationship with the United States and to see if this could in some way dilute China's growing power in the region.
While the broader strategic issues are the main concern, Sino-Japanese relations are crucial in domestic terms for the Communist Party, as shown by the street demonstrations last month, which many believe took place with government backing.
China believes that Japan has not done enough to atone for its invasion and brutal occupation from 1931 to 1945, and Beijing sees the shrine as a symbol of Japanese militarism in the past.
The government is not slow to focus on what it sees as Japan's failure to atone sufficiently.
"Some Japanese leaders, in great disregard of the feelings of the Chinese people, made some wrong and incorrect remarks about the Yasukuni shrine," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Kong Quan said.
The China Daily newspaper described as "empty" the rare public apology by Mr Koizumi for his nation's military past.