Senior officials from the ruling parties of China and Japan
discussed a wide range of issues on Tuesday, aimed at repairing the
ties soured by Japanese prime minister's repeated visits to a
shrine worshipping WWII war criminals.?
"Hopefully this meeting will serve as a channel for China and
Japan to have a smooth exchange of views and break the deadlock as
soon as possible," said Wang Jiarui, head of the International
Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central
Committee.
The two-day meeting is the first of its kind to be held under
the China-Japan Ruling Parties Exchange Mechanism, which was
adopted in 2004 by the CPC and Japan's ruling coalition, the
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Komei Party.
"We had a frank and in-depth dialogue," said LDP Policy Chief
Hidenao Nakagawa.
"Japan-China friendship constitutes the basis of Asian
stability," said Yoshihisa Inoue, policy chief of the Komei Party.
"So we should take this into consideration and mend the ties as
soon as possible."
Nakagawa and Inoue are the highest ranking officials of the
Japanese ruling coalition to visit China in the past two years.
The topics of the meeting ranged from history issues and
political relations to trade and regional cooperation, with the
shrine visits discussed heatedly by both Chinese and Japanese
officials.
"China-Japan relations now stand at a crossroad," said Wang, who
was leading the Chinese side in the meeting. "The crux of the
strained political relations lies in the Japanese leaders' repeated
visits to Yasukuni Shrine."
The heads of the two neighboring states have halted exchange of
visits for more than four years, ever since Japanese Prime Minister
Koizumi began to pay homage to the controversial war shrine soon
after he took office in 2001.
Some participants warned at the meeting that the continued
political chill between China and Japan would harm the prospering
economic ties, which have already seen a slower growth in 2005.
"Stopping shrine visits does not mean that China or Japan is
winning or losing the competition," Wang said. "It requires the
political wisdom and courage of Japanese leaders to put an
immediate end to the shrine visits."
Nakagawa also proposed that the leaders of the two countries
should hold meetings as soon as possible to resolve the issue.
Inoue said that "Japan will continuously seek to improve
relations with China, no matter who takes Koizumi's place as the
prime minister in the coming fall."
On Wednesday, the two sides will focus their discussion on
foreign affairs, defense policy and development strategy.
(Xinhua News Agency February 22, 2006)
