If there's one thing executives at Honda Motor and Nissan Motor need to fix first when - and if - they merge, it's their China business. The Japanese duo's sales have been falling for years in the world's largest car market.

Despite reports that Mitsubishi would not be a part of the Honda-Nissan merger, officially no decision has been made

Nissan was deep in the trenches, with its existence at stake, but Honda's timely entry gave it a positive direction. Here's how everything went down.