国内英语新闻:Historical issues key to improving China-Japan ties, says Chinese official

TOKYO, April 10 (Xinhua) -- A senior Chinese legislator said here that the key to the continuous improvement of China-Japan relations is properly coping with historical issues, particularly at the time of the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII, according to a Chinese legislative delegation here Friday.

Ji Bingxuan, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) of China and head of the delegation, made the remarks in the eighth meeting of a mechanism for regular exchanges between the NPC and the Japanese Diet's lower house from Thursday to Friday.

He said China hopes that Japan will take a responsible attitude toward the historical issues and develop future-oriented friendships with its Asian neighbors.

Ji pointed out that China-Japan ties recently hit major turbulence that damaged bilateral political mutual trust and cooperation in a wide range of areas, but the bilateral relationship witnessed a turning point last year since Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after the two sides reached a four-point agreement to improve bilateral ties.

Ji added that Beijing attaches great importance to China-Japan ties and is willing to continuously develop bilateral strategic relationship of mutual benefit with Tokyo in the spirit of taking history as a mirror and looking forward to the future.

The Japanese side, headed by Motoo Hayashi, chairman of the Standing Committee on Rules and Administration at the lower house, said that both Japan and China are regional powers and they have a broad range of cooperation areas such as economy and trade, energy, environment, food safety, disaster relief and people-to-people exchanges, adding the two sides should make joint efforts to construct the bilateral strategic relationship of mutual benefit.

Both sides agreed that long-term stable and healthy development of Sino-Japanese relations serve the interests of the two countries and their people and the two sides' legislative bodies will enhance exchanges, push forward the proper handling of bilateral divergences and sensitive issues so as to improve bilateral relations.

During his visit here, Ji also met with leaders of Japanese political parties, government officials and heads of Japan-China friendship groups.