China and Japan normalized diplomatic relations 35 years ago. Sino-Japanese economic and trade cooperation was an unprecedented development, made possible by the tireless efforts of both countries over these years.

The value of Sino-Japanese bilateral trade increased nearly 200 times from US$1.1 billion in 1972 to US$207.36 billion dollars in 2006. Today, Japan is China's third-largest trading partner, and China is Japan's second largest trading partner. According to data published by the Chinese government, Japan's actual investment in China totalled US$57.97 billion in 37,714 projects. There are thousands of Japanese enterprises active in various regions of China, and as China's economic strength increases, more and more Chinese enterprises are investing in Japan.

Japanese investment in China has shifted from clothing, food, and other labor-intensive industries to technology-intensive industries such as electronics, machinery, automobiles, iron and steel, building materials, finance, information, energy-saving and environmentally friendly technology.

In addition, the Japanese government supports Chinese infrastructure, energy, environment protection and poverty-relief efforts by providing substantial yen loans and gratuitous support. According to the Chinese government, the Japanese government has lent 3.207854 trillion yen between 1979 and the first half of 2006. China has actually utilized approximately 2.386413 trillion yen of these loans. As of 2005, China had accepted 137.6 billion in aid from the Japanese government.

To achieve sustainable development, many high-energy, heavily polluting industries and products will be limited in the future. China will focus more on foreign investment in high technology, low-energy consuming and high added-value industries. Cooperation on energy-saving and environmentally-friendly technology is expected to become the bright spot and focus of cooperation between China and Japan.

By People's Daily Online