The first is to faithfully adhere to the political commitments reached by previous leaders of the two countries.

In 1972, during negotiations on the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan, the then-Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai and then-Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka agreed to shelve this Diaoyu Islands dispute and wait for a more favorable opportunity to resolve the issue. The two leaders noted that "credit is the soul of all things". We can see the great importance the elder statesmen of both countries attached to trust.

The Diaoyu Islands dispute is the crux of China-Japan relations hitting rock bottom. China and Japan should revive the tacit understanding reached by Zhou Enlai and Kakuei Tanaka in 1972.

The ups and downs of China-Japan relations in recently years are closely related to whether the two countries can faithfully fulfill their political commitments and consensus. Only by returning to such an agreement, are bilateral relations likely to warm up again.

The second is to adhere to the four China-Japan political documents that have been signed, namely the China-Japan Joint Statement, the China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship, the China-Japan Joint Declaration, and the China-Japan Joint Statement on All-round Promotion of Strategic Relationship of Mutual Benefit.

Compared with national leaders' verbal promises, the four political documents have a higher legal status and more binding force. Among them, provisions, such as the two countries shall in their mutual relations settle all disputes by peaceful means, reinforce that long-term peaceful and friendly cooperation is the only choice for the two countries, which are each other's cooperative partner rather than a threat to each other. This is not only the conclusion of historical experience, but also the crystallization of bilateral political wisdom. It is the basic principle the two sides should follow while dealing with various bilateral disputes and frictions. The four political documents are the only basis enabling bilateral relations to thaw and get better.

The third is to strengthen people-to-people exchanges and ideas. State-to-state relations thrive when there is friendship between the peoples. Increasing mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples is conducive to China-Japan generational friendship and cooperation, which constitutes the social base for the two sides to rebuild strategic mutual trust.

The more difficult the times China-Japan relations are facing, the more both sides should do to strengthen exchanges at grassroots level, because it is of great significance to promote mutual understanding between the two peoples and curb the rise of narrow nationalist sentiments.

The author is a researcher with the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies.

(China Daily 10/26/2013 page5)