By Yang Yi

Chinese Defense Minister General Cao Gangchuan's current Japan visit is not only an important exchange between Chinese and Japanese armed forces, but a crucial event in the development of the two nations' relations.

China and Japan are neighbors separated by just "a strip of water" and both are countries that have great influence on the world. As a result, their bilateral relations have a great deal to do with regional and world peace, stability and prosperity.

Last year, top leaders from China and Japan reached a consensus on pushing for the introduction of a strategic mutually-beneficial relationship. This helped chart the future development of bilateral ties.

Still, China-Japan relations face challenges posed by structural problems that are by no means easily settled.

Bilateral military relations are one of these problems.

The military relationship is the most sensitive area and is also a wind vane indicating good or bad faring of the bilateral ties.

It could either pose an obstacle to bilateral relations or serve as an engine powering the progress of the ties.

At present, China and Japan largely lack mutual strategic trust in the area of military security.

This not only arrests the development of Sino-Japanese strategic mutually-beneficial relations but is also prone to trigger mistrust between the two countries, which easily leads to misjudgment, or, in the worst case scenario, crisis and conflict.

In view of this, it is feasible for the two sides to forge a mutually-beneficial Chinese-Japanese military security relationship, in the general context of pushing for the mutual beneficial strategic relationship between the two nations.

This cannot be achieved overnight. Instead, it calls for the two sides to work steadily and make progress towards that goal step by step.

For that purpose, both China and Japan should stick to the road of peaceful development, adhere to the principles of defensive military strategy, correctly define one another strategically, recognize each other's political appeal and legitimate rights and co-operate with one another in bilateral and multi-lateral frameworks.

At the same time, both sides should avoid challenging each other's core national interests and refrain from interfering in each other's internal affairs. Both sides should not regard each other as potential adversaries, use force, or threaten to use force, in settling disputes between them. In the same manner, both China and Japan should refrain from joining any political and military alliances targeted at the other side.

China has now embarked on the road toward peaceful development.

China is accelerating the pace of military modernization for the sake of contributing to world peace, stability and prosperity. It pledges to permanently adhere to a defensive military strategy. Japan should, therefore, recognize China's rational rights and refrain from trumpeting up the "China threat", let alone advocating bilateral or multi-lateral military-alliance frameworks in an effort to contain China.

In the wake of World War II, Japan stuck to the constitution of peace and trekked along the road of economic development, steering clear of the old militarist rut. Therefore, Japan played a very important part in world and regional affairs.

But after the end of the Cold War, in recent years in particular, Japan has been in pursuit of the status of political and military power, citing being a "normal country."

Whether or not Japan will continue to travel along the road of peaceful development depends on whether or not the country can win the trust of Asian countries and the world at large.

Now that China-Japan relations are improving in an all-around way, both countries' militaries should seize the golden opportunity to promote interaction on various levels and boost mutual understanding and reduce misgivings in order to guarantee the steady progress of bilateral strategic mutually-beneficial relationship.

The author is rear admiral of the Chinese Navy and director of the Institute for Strategic Studies, National Defense University, PLA.

(China Daily September 1, 2007)