Visiting Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) Li Ruihuan said Tokyo that friendly cooperation between Japan and China has profound social basis and is bound to advance vigorously and pass on from generation to generation.

Li, who is on a goodwill visit, made the statement in an interview with Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) over the weekend.

He said that Japan and China, which are close neighbors to each other and are both important countries in the Asia-Pacific region, share deep cultural origins and are well complementary to each other in economic development.

Lasting peace, friendship and cooperation between the two countries will be beneficial for the two countries to concentrate on their construction as well as to maintain common prosperity and development, and will contribute to peace and stability in Asia and the world as a whole, Li said.

"This is in the essential interests of the people of the two countries and also in line with the development trend of the time, " he said, calling for sincere and unyielding efforts to achieve such lasting peace, friendship and cooperation.

Li said China will never forget those old friends while making new friends in developing the cause of friendship with Japan.

"China and Japan can work together, we'll always be good friends," he said.

"While not forgetting history, we should have our eyes more on the future," Li said.

"We should guard against and eliminate the noises and disruptive moves of a small number of people," he noted.

He called on people to heed the positive aspects and the bright future of the Sino-Japanese friendship and expressed the belief that a healthier and more stable Sino-Japanese relationship of peace and cooperation will be brought into the new century so long as efforts are made in accordance with the joint statement of the governments of China and Japan, the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between China and Japan, and the two countries' joint statement on building friendly and cooperative partnership.