[quote=The Nexerus]
The China-Japan alliance is purely a machination of OOC negotiations; the two nation's governments and citizens hold each other in contempt, and any amount of warmness between them (much less a full fledged alliance) is unrealistic. Should they be as hostile towards each other as they would be if this were during or after the SIno-Japanese wars? Obviously not, but they definitely shouldn't be warm neighbours.
[/quote]

I wouldn't make the assertion that relations are cold at this point in time. The main point of contention that led to the conflict was the land disputes, which even then didn't cause major diplomatic issues until China sent an army into Korea to crush a rebellion. Japan saw this as a landgrab, and thus the Sino-Japanese War started. Hell, the Tokugawa and Qing didn't have much diplomatic interaction at this point yet. The only interaction they really had was mainly indirect through trade. The only reason that Qing-Meiji relations started to deteriorated was due to numerous interventions in Korea, Formosa, and etc. from both sides from the 1870's and on. Even then, the two signed a friendship treaty in 1871.