A senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official said in Beijing Thursday that China hopes Japan would work with China to push bilateral ties back on the track.

 

"We hope Japan would take concrete measures to push China-Japan ties back on the track of healthy and stable development," He Guoqiang, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, told Tetsuzo Fuwa, former chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Japan.

 

Leaders of the two countries have suspended exchanges since 2001, after Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro began paying homage at the controversial Yasukuni Shrine that honors convicted Japanese war criminals.

 

He Guoqiang said leaders of the CPC and the Chinese government have expressed commitment to improving China-Japan ties on many occasions, which shows China's positive attitude and sincerity.

 

Chinese President Hu Jintao had explained China's policy on China-Japan relations on March 31 in a meeting with the heads of seven Japan-China friendship organizations.

 

Hu made it clear that the major obstacle in China-Japan relations was Japanese leaders' insistence on visiting the Yasukuni Shrine.

 

Hu, however, noted that the Chinese government believed the Japanese people's visits to the Yasukuni Shrine were different from that of their leaders, and ordinary Japanese soldiers who were forced into war were different from the few militarists and class A war criminals.

 

In response, Fuwa said his party would continue to make efforts to help repair relations between the two countries.

 

Fuwa was leading a delegation of the Communist Party of Japan to have academic exchanges with the Communist Party of China in Beijing.

 

(Xinhua News Agency May 26, 2006)