Whoever started trouble should end it, China tells Japan

BEIJING - China on Monday continued to call on Japanese leaders to reflect on history to mend bilateral ties while welcoming a visiting delegation to China.

"China has always welcomed people from all walks of life in Japan, including both the ruling and opposition parties, to make positive moves to improve China-Japan relations," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a daily news briefing.

Her comment came as a group of senior lawmakers from Tokyo visited Beijing. Masahiko Komura, head of the delegation and vice president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, was scheduled to meet with China's top legislator Zhang Dejiang on Monday afternoon.

The current difficulties in bilateral ties are caused by Japanese leaders, whose wrong actions shook the political foundation of bilateral ties, Hua said.

"Such actions pose severe political obstacles for high-level exchanges between the two countries," Hua said.

"Whoever started the trouble should end it," she said, urging Japan to honor its commitments in the four China-Japan political documents and take real actions to get the bilateral relationship back on track.

A couple of delegations have visited China since last month. Governor of Tokyo Prefecture Yoichi Masuzoe visited Beijing from April 24 to 26 and met with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang.

Earlier, a delegation from the Japanese Association for the Promotion of International Trade visited China and also met with Wang. Wang called on Japan's business community to make efforts to overcome the obstacles in bilateral ties.

China and Japan have seen few high-level political contacts since the Japanese government's "purchase" of the Diaoyu Islands in September 2012, a move that contributed to the disintegration of bilateral relations.

Abe's visit to the Yasukuni shrine, which honors WWII war criminals, erected another political obstacle to the strained relations.