Ｊａｐａｎ’ｓ ＬＤＰ Ｄｉｅｔ Ｐｏｌｉｃｙ Ｃｏｍｍｉｔｔｅｅ ＣｈａｉｒｍａｎＴｏｓｈｉｈｉｒｏ Ｎｉｋａｉ ａｎｄ Ｈｉｓ Ｐａｒｔｙ Ｖｉｓｉｔ Ｃｈｉｎａ

At the invitation of the China-Japan Friendship Association (CJFA)， Toshihiro Nikai， chairman of the Diet Policy Committee of the Japanese Liberal Democratic Party， and Yoshio Urushibara， chairman of the Diet Policy Committee of the Japanese Komei Party， paid a visit to China from January 20 to 23， 2007. Wu Bangguo， chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress， and Tang Jiaxuan， state councillor， met with them. CPAFFC President Chen Haosu met with and entertained them.

Toshihiro Nikai and his party paid official calls on the International Department of the CPC Central Committee， the National Tourism Administration and the People’s Daily.

Chairman Wu Bangguo Meets with Toshihiro Nikai

On the afternoon of January 22， Wu Bangguo met with Toshihiro Nikai and his party at the Great Hall of the People. Chen Haosu， CPAFFC president， Jiang Enzhu， chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the NPC， Cao Weizhou and Sun Wei， deputy secretaries general of the NPC， Cui Tiankai， assistant foreign minister， Jing Dunquan， CPAFFC vice president， and Yuji Miyamoto， Japanese ambassador to China， were present at the meeting.

Chairman Wu Bangguo said， the Chinese Government always attaches great importance to Sino-Japanese relations and actively promotes bilateral cooperation and development of the relations between the two countries. But， for the reason known to all， Sino-Japanese relations have met serious difficulties in recent years and were once in a deadlock， resulting in the leaders of the two countries failing to visit each other in the past five years， making the people of the two countries feel greatly worried. With concerted efforts made by the two countries， Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited China in October 2006. The leaders of the two countries reached extensive consensus on overcoming obstacles to bilateral relations and a series of other issues， and broke the political deadlock. Since then， President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao met with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on many multilateral occasions. Premier Wen Jiabao will pay a formal visit to Japan upon invitation in April. Sino-Japanese relations， on the whole， maintain a momentum of good improvement and development， which is generally welcomed by the people of the two countries and the international community. This situation hard won through tremendous efforts made by numerous Chinese and Japanese friendly personages including Mr. Nikai should be dearly treasured. Both China and Japan are influential major countries in the world. Sino-Japanese friendly relationship conforms to the fundamental interests of the two peoples and is conducive to peace， prosperity and stability of Asia and the world at large.

Chairman Wu pointed out， in order to develop Sino-Japanese relations， the two countries should energetically strengthen mutual trust and enhance friendship between the two peoples. Currently， Sino-Japanese relations have turned to the better and the two sides should increase exchanges between the political circles， particularly the younger statesmen so as to enhance political mutual trust. Now， most of the Japanese dietmen and members of the Cabinet were born after the Second World War. The contingent of Chinese cadres is also getting younger. The younger generation is full of vigour and has the global vision， but they are not familiar with the development course of Sino-Japanese relations and have little knowledge about the hard efforts made by the older generations of the two countries to establish Sino-Japanese friendly relations. Last year， I had talks with president of the House of Councillors and with speaker of the House of Representatives of Japan， and decided to establish mechanism of regular exchanges between the Chinese National People’s Congress and the Japanese Diet. In the future this channel of exchanges should be fully used to strengthen mutual visits and exchanges between the statesmen， particularly the younger ones of the two countries so as to increase mutual understanding and trust and lay a good foundation for the long term development of Sino-Japanese relations.

Chairman Wu continued， economic and trade cooperation is an important component part of Sino-Japanese friendly cooperation. The two countries should earnestly implement the consensus reached by the two heads of state and further deepen and expand exchange and cooperation in economic and trade fields. The two countries enjoy a good basis of economic cooperation， and bilateral trade volumes have been increasing continuously. On this basis， the two sides can promote cooperation in some large projects and improve the quality of cooperation. Japan has advanced technology and experience in the major fields of China’s current economic construction， particularly environmental protection， energy saving and high-speed railway. The cooperation between the two countries has huge potential and broad prospects.

Chairman Wu said， the Chinese side appreciates the peaceful road Japan has taken and the achievements it has made over the postwar 60 years， and also hopes that the Japanese side will look at China’s development in an objective way. China has always persistently taken the road of peaceful development， and the ultimate goal of its development is to raise the living standard of the 1.3 billion people. At present， the economic development of China’s eastern and western regions is still unbalanced. In China’s central and western regions there are still many economically underdeveloped and even poor areas. To cast off poverty and become prosperous remains China’s central task at present and for a fairly long period of time in the future. To develop economy China needs a good neighbourly surrounding and adopts a policy of building a good neighbourly relationship and partnership， hoping to establish a long-term stable， friendly and good-neighbourly relations and cooperation with all its neighbouring countries including Japan.

State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan Meets

with Toshihiro Nikai and His Party

On the morning of January 22， State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan met with Toshihiro Nikai and his party. CPAFFC President Chen Haosu， Assistant foreign Minister Cui Tiankai， CPAFFC Vice President Jing Dunquan and Japanese Ambassador to China Yuji Miyamoto were present at the meeting.

State Councillor Tang expressed his welcome to Toshihiro Nikai leading a delegation to China and appreciated the efforts he had made for a long time to promote Sino-Japanese friendship， nongovernmental friendly exchange as well as exchanges and cooperation in the economic， trade and tourist fields.

Nikai expressed his thanks to Tang for meeting with them in the midst of his pressing affairs， and passed on the letter from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. Nikai said， in 2000 and 2002 I successively led two delegations， one of 5，000 people and the other of 13，000 to China. Grand commemorative activities held in the Great Hall of the People achieved great success. Many members of the delegations were deeply moved， and even now still can not forget the Chinese people’s friendliness. They often gathered together to recall the scenes of direct contact at that time. The year 2007 marks the 35th anniversary of the normalization of China-Japan diplomatic relations. Nikai hoped that the two countries would take this opportunity to carry out a new round of large-sized bilateral personnel exchanges to further enhance mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples and build a solid China-Japan friendly relationship.

Tang appreciated Nikai’s good idea of promoting exchanges between the two countries. Tang said， since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited China last October， Sino-Japanese relations have a turn for the better， and on the whole， present a tendency of development. Not long ago President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao met with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe respectively at the APEC meeting and the ASEAN Summit， and achieved positive results. Invited by Prime Minister Abe Premier Wen Jiabao is going to visit Japan this April. This is a matter of great importance in bilateral relations. We believe that through this visit the two countries can make an all-round plan for the development of bilateral relations， further strengthen the political basis， consolidate the economic basis and expand the social and public opinion basis for the development of bilateral relations. This visit will surely exert important and far-reaching influence on Sino-Japanese relations.

State Councillor Tang said， currently， Sino-Japanese relations are faced with both opportunities of development and challenges. We need to grasp this opportunity， further consolidate and strengthen the momentum ofimprovement and development and push bilateral relations of mutually beneficial cooperation to a higher level， and meanwhile properly handle the relevant problems so as to prevent the overall Sino-Japanese relations from being disturbed.