Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who will start his
four-day visit to China from Thursday, is expected to push
Japan-China ties forward, Japan's major newspaper Asahi
Shimbun said in an editorial on Thursday.
Fukuda will undoubtedly present his idea for the prospect of
Japan- China ties, the editorial said, noting that former Japanese
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe proposed a mutually beneficial
relationship based on common strategic interests and Chinese
Premier Wen Jiabao described his visit to Japan as an ice-melting
tour.
Following Abe's visit to China last Autumn and Wen's Japan tour
in April, Chinese President Hu Jintao's trip to Japan has been
initially scheduled for next spring. These showed the exchange of
visits between leaders of the two countries have been fully
resumed, the editorial said.
The editorial noted that Japan and China could not expect to
address the pending issues between them all at once though their
bilateral ties have improved.
It described the mutual trust between leaders of the two
countries as the basis to avert serious friction and to seek
diplomatic wisdom for common interests, saying that Fukuda could
start from this general point to push for the development of
bilateral ties.
Fukuda's speech at Peking University, to be live broadcast in
China, will be the first of its kind by a Japanese prime minister
since the normalization of ties between the two countries 35 years
ago, the editorial said.
The article added that Fukuda should talk candidly about Japan's
historic blunder as well as Japan's contribution to China's economy
in post-war period to let Chinese people know more about its
neighbor.
(Xinhua News Agency December 27, 2007)
