(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-09 07:23

When President Hu Jintao began his ongoing visit to Japan on Monday, some people and media commentaries still cast doubts on how China and Japan should relate to each other and on what were in store for the future of the bilateral ties.

The joint statement that President Hu Jintao and Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda signed on Wednesday should help clear most of the doubts as the two countries solemnly pledged all-round promotion of their strategic and mutually beneficial relations.

This promise has not come about easily as the relations between the two countries have experienced highs and lows with mutual confidence ebbing to the lowest point just two years ago.

Now that the spring has arrived after a series of "ice-breaking" and "ice-thawing" exchanges between the leaders of the two countries, it is only natural for them to come to the conclusion that "long-term peaceful and friendly cooperation is the only choice of the two countries", as was made clear in the joint statement.

It is heartening that Hu and his counterpart Fukuda did not shy away from the issue of history that has been a thorn in the bilateral relations. Both countries promised to "face it squarely".

And it is not a simple repetition of what several generations of Chinese and Japanese leaders have declared time and again.

In this document, dubbed the fourth landmark paper inked between the two major Asian countries, there is the mutual recognition and respect for each other's peaceful rise and contribution or resolve to world peace and common prosperity. Such a mutual recognition is essential in buttressing the mutual confidence that is very important in maintaining bilateral relations.

More importantly, as Hu put it in his speech at Waseda University yesterday, it is necessary to keep history in mind, not to breed, brew and prolong hatred between the two peoples, but to learn lessons from it, since that part of history caused tremendous sufferings not only for the Chinese but also for the Japanese.

There definitely is continuity in the consensus the two countries have reached over the past 36 years since the normalization of diplomatic relations, but the two sides have also set their sights further into the 21st century and acknowledged the responsibilities that both countries shoulder not only for the welfare of their own peoples but also for Asia as well as the world.

Only further cooperation between the two countries and among all the countries on earth can help in dealing with urgent problems such as energy shortage and climate change.

(China Daily 05/09/2008 page8)