If the political relations between China and Japan are not harmonious in the long run, it is unrealistic for the two countries to keep good overall economic and trade relations.

Zheng Jingping, spokesman for the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), made the remark in response to a question from the press at a news conference in Beijing on Thursday.

On whether the abnormal Sino-Japanese political relations would affect the economic relations, Zheng said the development of bilateral economic exchanges depends on good external environment.

Japan, China's third largest trade partner after the EU and the US, should acknowledge its crimes in the Second World War and follow the spirit of taking history as a mirror and looking to the future so as to keep the normal development of bilateral economic relations, he said.

Proceeding from the long-term and stable development of economies in China, Japan and Asia as a whole, Japan should face up to the history in order to fulfill the win-win situation, Zheng said.

(Xinhua News Agency October 20, 2005)