During his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, Zhu said that the two countries are important trading partners to each other and that further deepening of reciprocal co-operation would benefit both.

According to a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Koizumi told Zhu that China's economic development is not a threat to Japan.

The development of China as well as other countries that neighbor Japan is good for Japan and provides opportunities for competition for Japan, Koizumi said.

He suggested that the two countries set up a consultation mechanism about trade and economic cooperation, so as to promote the smooth development of bilateral economic ties. The proposal was well received by Zhu, the Chinese spokesman said.

In a speech Friday at the annual conference of the Boao Forum for Asia, Koizumi for the first time openly denied the theory that China could pose a threat to Japan.

"Some see the economic development of China as a threat," Koizumi said. "I do not. I believe its dynamic economic development presents challenges as well as opportunities for Japan.

"A rising economic tide and expansion of the market in China will stimulate competition and prove to be a tremendous opportunity for the world economy as a whole."

Koizumi also said that China and Japan, with their different industrial structures, can strengthen their mutually complementary bilateral economic relations.

"I see the advancement of Japan-China economic relations not as a hollowing-out of Japanese industry, but as an opportunity to nurture new industries in Japan and to develop their activities in the Chinese market," he said. "Our integrated efforts for economic reform in both countries should advance the wheel of economic relations."

With two-way trade volume registering at US$87.7 billion last year, China is now Japan's second largest trading partner and Japan is China's largest trading partner.

(China Daily April 13, 2002)