Mending China-Japan ties needs future Japanese leaders' wise decision
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-09-14 22:56
BEIJING-- The key to mending China-Japan relations lies in the "wise
political decision" by future Japanese leaders, a senior Chinese diplomat said
on Thursday.
State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan told Masao Kimiwada, TV Asahi president, that
China has already worked and will continue to work to remove political barriers
from China-Japan relations.
"We hope Japan will work together with China to get relations back on track.
The key is that the future Japanese leaders make wise political decisions," Tang
said.
The Sino-Japanese relations have been soured by Japanese Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, where Japan's war
dead, including 14 class A criminals in WWII, are honored.
Koizumi's latest shrine visit on August 15, the anniversary of his country's
World War II surrender, further damaged China-Japan political relations.
Koizumi is set to step down in September. The Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo
Abe, the leading prime ministerial candidate, has defended Koizumi's pilgrimages
to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine and refused to say whether or not he would
visit the shrine as prime minister.
Tang reiterated that sound China-Japan ties would be based on observance of
three political documents and proper handling of the history and Taiwan issues.
"The most important thing is that Japan should correctly view and handle the
history issue and refrain from offending the Chinese people," Tang said.
He added that Japan should respect China's stance on the Taiwan issue and not
harm China's peaceful reunification.
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