Right before Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's official visit to
Japan, which will be on next Wednesday through Friday,
representatives of Chinese students in Japan gathered in Tokyo last
week to express their excitement and expectations for the
"ice-melting visit."
On behalf of about 100,000 Chinese students in Japan, Li
Guangzhe, chairman of the Organization of All Chinese Students in
Japan, expressed best wishes for the premier's upcoming visit.
"We expect an all-around improvement of the Sino-Japanese ties
brought by the premier's tour, and are eager to see that the water
from the 'melting ice' becomes spring of the bilateral friendly
cooperation," said the doctoral degree student of the Tokyo
Institute of Technology.
There are currently about 100,000 Chinese students in Japan, and
likewise, there are also a large number of Japanese students in
China. Overseas students have constituted influential forces in
promoting people-to-people contact between the two countries and
should make more efforts to promote the development of bilateral
ties, Li said.
"It will be top-level Chinese leader's first visit to Japan in
six years, and Premier Wen will give a speech at the Japanese
parliament, the first ever in 22 years," said Shi Jiangshui, a
doctor from Tokyo University, adding that he and his Chinese
schoolmates are full of expectations that Premier Wen's Japan visit
will give a new motive force to the overall exchange between he two
countries and to the development of bilateral ties.
"I believe that the premier's visit is to bring about a spring
breeze which will melt the ice in the Sino-Japanese relationship,
and the water from the melting ice will nourish the flowers of
friendship between China and Japan," said Ren Yuqian, a Chinese
student from prestigious Keio University.
"Premier Wen's visit will encourage Chinese students in Japan to
contribute more to the Sino-Japanese friendship," She added.
According to official statistics, Japan is now hosting the
biggest percentage of Chinese overseas students, and the current
number of Chinese students in Japan is the highest on record.
(Xinhua News Agency April 9, 2007)
