Top Legislator Li Peng Interviewed by Japan's Asahi Shimbun and TV Asahi

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, April 10, 2002

Top Legislator Li Peng Interviewed by Japan's Asahi Shimbun and TV Asahi

China's top legislator Li Peng said Tuesday in the southern Japanese city of Kagoshima that China and Japan should forge ahead with their friendship from one generation to the next. There may be problems in bilateral ties in the future, but China has always held that as long as the two countries look far into the future then the Sino-Japanese relationship will develop in a sound and steady manner.

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Sino-Japan friendship should forge ahead

China's top legislator Li Peng said Tuesday in the southern Japanese city of Kagoshima that China and Japan should forge ahead with their friendship from one generation to the next.

Li said this when being interviewed by Asahi Shimbun and TV Asahi before winding up his eight-day visit to Japan. The chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress returned to Beijing late yesterday after a brief stay at Kagoshima.

Friendly relations and cooperation expected

There may be problems in bilateral ties in the future, but China has always held that as long as the two countries look far into the future then the Sino-Japanese relationship will develop in a sound and steady manner, Li said.

They should strictly abide by the three guiding documents on bilateral relations and take these problems seriously from the perspective of the overall development of bilateral ties, he added.

The 1972 Sino-Japanese Joint Statement and the 1978 bilateral Treaty of Peace and Friendship said that the two neighbors will not use force to solve their disputes and that Japan agrees to adhere to the one-China policy. They pledged to work for a friendly co-operative partnership of peace and development in the 1998 Sino-Japanese Joint Declaration.

Further development of trade

When answering a question about China's rapid economic development, Li denied that it poses a threat to Japan. He said national regeneration has provided Japanese businesses with a lot of opportunities and broad space for co-operation.

China hopes that Japan's economy will get out of its current difficulties soon and Li said this will also be conducive to the further development of trade and economic co-operation between the two neighbors.

Japan has become China's largest trading partner and China is Japan's second largest. Bilateral trade volume registered US$87.7 billion last year.

Bilateral Relations between China and Japan

Political Relationship: Date of Normalization of Sino-Japanese Relations: September 29,1972.

At present, the Sino-Japanese relations have, on the whole, witnessed smooth development. The friendly exchanges and mutually beneficiary cooperation in various areas have made constant progress, which have not only brought about significant interests to the two countries, but also made positive contributions to the regional peace, stability and development and the world as well.

Bilateral Trade: Japan is our greatest trade partner, while China remains as the second biggest to Japan. The bilateral trade volume in 1997 amounted to 60.8 billion US dollars, a record high in history. In 1998, the total volume of Sino-Japanese trade was 57.89 billion US dollars, decreased by 4.8% compared with that of the previous year. The export volume to Japan was 29.69 billion US dollars against an import of 28.2 billion dollars, enjoying a trade surplus of 1.5 billion US dollars, 47.7% lower than that of the previous year. >>more information

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