China Daily Global Edition (USA)
China calls on Japan to resolve issues
Japan should properly tackle important matters with China, such as historical issues and the Taiwan question, China’s top political adviser said on Thursday.
Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee, said at a meeting with a visiting bipartisan delegation of Japanese lawmakers that Japan should safeguard the political basis for its relationship with China.
The delegation of the Japan-China Friendship Parliamentarians’ Union was led by Masahiko Komura, vicepresident of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party and a frequent visitor to China.
The delegation arrived in Beijing as both countries are embracing this year the 45th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations.
Later this month, Japanese political heavyweights including Toshihiro Nikai, secretary-general of the LDP, will travel to Beijing to attend the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.
Yu said the two countries, after normalizing their diplomatic relationship 45 years ago, have introduced four key political documents and bilateral exchanges and have made remarkable progress.
“Such a great picture is hard-won, and it deserves great care,” he said.
Yu said China has called for using history as a lesson with which to face the future; remaining committed to peace, friendship and cooperation; and pressing forward with improved ties.
Tokyo angered Beijing when, on March 25, Jiro Akama, Japan’s senior vice-minister of internal affairs and communications, visited Chinese Taiwan, breaching the commitment to interact with Taiwan only at nongovernmental and local levels.
Komura referred to the bilateral meetings of leaders last year and the consensus reached, and said the relationship has maintained a momentum of development since then.
Feng Zhaokui, a senior researcher on Japan studies at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, noted that the two countries have common ground in many economic and environmental areas, yet the process of improving relations has been shaky recently.
Behind the shaky improvement of ties is Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s “failure to break with actions that confront or contain China onmany fronts,” Feng said.
On Wednesday, Abe triggered Beijing’s concerns by saying he plans to revise the pacifist Constitution to remove legislative bans on Japanese military actions overseas and put it into force in 2020.
In response, Foreign-Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said on Wednesday that Japan is hoped to “earnestly draw lessons from history, follow the trend of the times, stick to the path of peaceful development and play a constructive role in safeguarding regional peace and stability”.