A man holds his mobile phone under Chinese and Japanese flags in front of the Tiananmen Gate ahead of Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit, in Beijing, China October 25, 2018. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

BEIJING (Reuters) - Japan and China are due to sign around 50 project memorandums of understanding during Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to Beijing this week, according to a draft document seen by Reuters.

Projects range from energy and healthcare to finance and automobiles, the draft document showed.

Abe arrived in Beijing on Thursday for the first formal summit in seven years as the Asian rivals seek to build on a thaw in ties against a backdrop of trade friction with the United States.