The possibility of war between China and Japan in the East China Sea is rapidly emerging as one of the biggest security risks facing the world. Unfortunately, the actions of the Chinese and Japanese governments are doing nothing to make conflict less likely.

The focus of the stand-off is a chain of disputed islands called Senkaku by Japan and Diaoyu by China. Although the islands are administered by the Japanese, China is making increasingly insistent claims to ownership. Last November Beijing wrongfooted Tokyo when it declared an “air defence identification zone” covering the airspace over the islands. In the subsequent war of words between both sides, Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister, poured more fuel on the flames by visiting a controversial shrine hated by the Chinese because it honours 14 convicted war criminals.

A new reason for concern has now emerged with Mr Abe’s appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week. In a meeting with journalists, the prime minister not only defended his visit to the Yasukuni shrine. He also drew an explicit comparison between his nation’s rivalry with China and that which existed between Britain and Germany before the first world war. The extensive trade between the two European powers had not prevented them coming to blows, he said, adding that China and Japan were now in a “similar situation”.