Jiang Meets Leaders of Japanese Coalition Parties

Jiang meets leaders of Japanese coalition parties

President Jiang Zemin expressed the hope Tuesday that China and Japan should adopt an attitude highly responsible to the generations to come and the peace and development of mankind as they push forward bilateral relations to new highs.

Jiang's remarks came during a meeting with the secretaries- general of the three coalition parties of the Japanese government.

Hiromu Nonaka of the Liberal Democratic Party, Tetsuzo Fuyushiba of the New Komeito Party, and Takeshi Noda of the New Conservative Party, and their associates arrived in China on Monday for a two-day goodwill visit at the invitation of the Chinese government.

Jiang said that as China and Japan are important neighbors and influential countries in the Asia-Pacific region and the world as well, leaders of the two countries should view and handle bilateral relations with a broad and long-term strategic point of view.

Jiang recalled his meeting with the Japan-China cultural, sightseeing and exchange delegation not long ago, and his participation in a Japanese-Chinese gathering of more than 5,000 people in Beijing.

The Chinese president said that during that event people could feel the great enthusiasm for China-Japan friendship. It also demonstrated that the broad masses of people in the two countries are in favor of China-Japan friendship.

"Promoting the healthy and stable development of the Sino- Japanese relationship is the common wish of people in our two countries," he said. "We can sum it up in one sentence: we should draw lessons from history and maintain our friendship generation by generation."

Hiromu Nonaka handed Jiang a letter written by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, and said that President Jiang and late Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's exchange of visits in 1998 and 1999 helped set the orientation of Japan-China ties.

Nonaka said the Japanese cabinet headed by Mori will continue with the policy set by Obuchi, and will strive to push forward good-neighborly and friendly cooperative relations in the new century.

He said Jiang's participation in the gathering of 5,000 people in Beijing, and his important speech on bilateral relations greatly encouraged the people at the gathering, and gained a widespread positive reaction in Japan.

The other two secretaries-general, Tetsuzo Fuyushiba of the New Komeito Party, and Takeshi Noda of the New Conservative Party, expressed their common desire to make unremitting efforts for the development of friendly relations with China on the basis of the Japan-China Joint Statement and other relevant documents.