Could there be the first signs of one hopeful development among the general geopolitical tension and gloom?
I refer to the sliver of news — the hint, no more — for once positive instead of the usual stream of negatives — that the second- and third-largest industrial nations on Earth, China and Japan, may actually be getting together, at least in some areas, instead of being forever at each others' throats.
The Times, reporting on the three-day official visit by Prime Minister to Beijing and to Chinese President Xi Xinping, carries the phrases "a warm encounter" and "a growing closeness."