China and Japan have agreed to start expert-level consultations
on operating charter flights between Tokyo's Haneda airport and
Shanghai's Hongqiao airport, a senior official from the General
Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC) said
yesterday.
The consensus was reached after Japan's Land, Infrastructure and
Transport Minister Tetsuzo Fuyushiba held a series of talks with
Chinese officials, including State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan, on a
visit to Beijing over the weekend, Wu Zhouhong, deputy director of
the CAAC's Department of International Cooperation, told China
Daily.
The plan is considered part of efforts by the two neighbors to
boost tourism exchanges and achieve the target agreed in November
to increase the number of bilateral people exchanges to 5 million
or more in 2007, the 35th anniversary of the normalization of
bilateral relations.
During his meeting with Fuyushiba on Sunday, Tang said the two
countries "have already broken the five-year-long political
stalemate and brought bilateral ties to the normal track of
development," referring to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's
ice-breaking China visit in October.
Currently, Japanese visitors to China far outnumber Chinese to
Japan, with the figures last year standing at 3.39 million and
650,000 respectively.
But Chinese visitors to Japan have risen this year to 850,000,
Fuyushiba was quoted by Japan's Kyodo News Agency as saying, adding
he hopes the figure next year will reach 1.3-1.4 million.
On Sunday, Kyodo quoted anonymous sources as saying the two
countries are working to materialize a visit to Japan by Premier
Wen Jiabao in late March or in April.
The two nations are also studying a visit to Japan by President
Hu Jintao in the latter half of next year, the report said.
(China Daily December 5, 2006)
