Visiting Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) Li Peng said Friday in Tokyo that the Communist Party of China (CPC) is willing to continue developing a new type of inter-party relationship with Japan's Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party, based on the principles of independence, equality, mutual respect and non-interference in each other's internal affairs.
Li, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, expressed his wish for closer ties during separate meetings with Chairman of the Central Committee of the Japanese Communist Party Kazuo Shii and head of the Social Democratic Party Takako Doi prior to leaving Tokyo for Toyama to continue his eight-day visit to Japan.
According to an NPC spokesman, Shii, noting that this year marks the fourth anniversary of the normalization of relations between the communist parties in Japan and China, called for efforts to further develop exchanges and cooperation between the two parties.
He pledged that his party will stick to the one-China policy and holds that Japan should seriously re-examine its historical account of its invasion of China in the 1930s and 1940s.
The questions concerning Taiwan and Japan's attitude towards its invasion of China are the two major factors impacting the development of bilateral ties.
Li's current visit marks the 30th anniversary of the normalization of ties between the two countries.
The visit was hailed by the Social Democratic Party's Doi as having an important role in improving bilateral ties in the new century, while
Li expressed hope that the Japanese Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party will contribute further to the maintenance and development of bilateral relations.
(China Daily April 6, 2002)
