(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-06 07:15

The warmth of the China-Japan relations has a parallel in the late spring temperature.

Last year started with Premier Wen Jiabao's ice-thawing trip to Japan in April and ended with his Japanese counterpart Yasuo Fukuda's eve-of-spring tour of China in December.

Chinese and Japanese leaders will have a lot more opportunities to meet. President Hu Jintao is leaving Beijing for Tokyo today for a five-day Japan visit. China has been invited to the G8's Hokkaido Toyako summit in July in Japan; Japanese leaders are expected to attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in August.

The change of political winds has been making frequent meetings between leaders of the two countries possible. These will facilitate talks and consultations on issues of common concern, both regional and global.

China and Japan signed the Treaty of Peace and Friendship in 1978 when Fukuda's late father, Takeo Fukuda, was Japan's prime minister. Obviously influenced by his father, Fukuda attaches great value to promoting Japan's relations with Asian countries. Although Japan-US relations are still the axis of Japan's diplomacy today, the country's economic ties with China keep expanding.

China and Japan have upgraded their relations to the strategic level on the basis of mutual trust. To make strategic reconciliation and cooperation real, the two countries need to appropriately handle the structural conflicts relating to their practical interests. Also, they need to properly handle their emotional and ideological estrangement.

They need to make their strategic mutual trust stable so as to pursue their practical interests and long-term development. They need to treat and deal with each other's changes and development in an objective, sober, healthy and friendly manner. In so doing, both can win.

The two countries have walked a long way to put their relations back in good shape. Along with more contacts between their top leaders, the two countries are working hard on building stronger links among their young people.

Less burdened by history, young generations find it easier to communicate and understand each other. Communication between young people can have a huge impact on bilateral relations.

A lot of things Hu is going to do in Japan in the next five days are expected to plant the seeds of friendship in the young hearts.

When the Chinese and Japanese harbor healthy feelings toward each other, a stable, strategic partnership of mutual trust between China and Japan can be possible and meaningful. This will help them find ways to overcome the problems they face.

(China Daily 05/06/2008 page8)