China's top legislator, Wu Bangguo, on Wednesday called for
improving Sino-Japanese ties by enhancing party and people
exchanges and promoting economic and cultural cooperation.
Wu, also member of the Standing committee of the Political
Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, was
speaking in a meeting with Japanese Liberal Democratic Party former
Vice-President Yamazaki Taku.
"Especially when there are difficulties in our relations,
parties and statesmen in China and Japan should look over the
situation from a higher point of view and preserve the political
foundation of bilateral ties," Wu told Yamazaki in the Great Hall
of the People in Beijing.
He urged the two sides to strive to return bilateral relations
to a sound and stable development track.
President Hu Jintao met with the heads of seven Japan-China
friendship organizations in Beijing on March 31 and voiced China's
stance on its relations with Japan.
"President Hu's remarks illustrated the principled stance of the
Chinese Communist Party and government on visits by Japanese
leaders to the Yasukuni Shrine and the aspiration to improve ties,"
Wu said.
The shrine honors 2.5 million Japanese war dead, including the
Class A criminals from the World War II. Hu offered talks with
Japanese leaders as soon as they make an unequivocal decision to
stop visiting the Yasukuni Shrine.
"Sino-Japanese friendship is not an inane slogan, but the only
right choice to ensure common development and prosperity," Wu
said.
Yamazaki said Japan and China were partners as well as neighbors
and both wielded importance influence in Asia and the world.
China's development was an opportunity, rather than a challenge,
for Japan.
Maintaining the friendship between Japan and China was conducive
to mutual development and to world peace and prosperity, he
said.
(Xinhua News Agency April 27, 2006)
