Security heaviest force in Sino-Japanese ties

Tuesday marks the 74th anniversary of the beginning of the Nanjing Massacre, a series of commemorative activities have been launched in China. Historical issues were once, during former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's tenure, the biggest obstacle to a healthy relationship between China and Japan.

But today, security issues are of greater significance in Sino-Japanese ties than historical tangles.

China and Japan will embrace the 40th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations next year. The two need a joint plan based on reality to promote diplomatic security ties over the next four decades.

Although China and Japan have issued a joint statement to promote mutually beneficial strategic ties in 2008, strategic conflicts between the two have grown, which in turn endangers everyday ties between the two countries.

Currently, the Japanese attitudes toward China are even worse than that when Koizumi was in office, reaching a historical low. According to an official Japanese survey last October, nearly 88.6 percent Japanese believe that the Sino-Japanese relationships are poor and 70.8 percent considered Chinese unfriendly to Japan.