"Our attitude towards history is to treat it as a mirror to aid us in looking to the future," said Vice-Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the normalization of Sino-Japanese relations.

On September 29, 1972, the Chinese and Japanese governments issued a joint statement announcing the restoration of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Wang praised the great progress made in exchanges and cooperation in every field between China and Japan over the past three decades.

Politically, the two countries have agreed to establish a friendly and cooperative partnership oriented toward peace and development. Economically, the two sides have established basically an interdependent relationship, he said, and bilateral economic and cultural cooperation and exchanges of personnel have reached unprecedented heights and the two sides have achieved a major political consensus and established guiding principles for the further development of ties.

However, a few problems, some of them old, some new, have arisen as a result of changing circumstances that affect Sino-Japanese ties from time to time. And some remarks and activities by some right-wing Japanese on the issues of history have hurt the Chinese people's feelings.

At the same time, worries and doubts about China have arisen in Japan, with some Japanese people even considering China a major would-be threat.

"The root of the history problem is with Japan itself," said Wang.

"Because of historic reasons, the militarism was not thoroughly cleaned in Japan after World War II. As a result, there have always existed right-wing extremist forces which openly deny or even seek to glorify Japan's history of aggression," Wang said.

Wang noted that the Chinese leadership has always held the Japanese militarists responsible for Japan's invasion of China and viewed the Japanese people as victims of the militarists as well.

The Japanese people love peace and oppose war, he noted, but some of them, including many youths, may not know well enough about the Japanese militarists' invasion of China and other Asian countries.

During President Jiang Zemin's visit to Japan in 1998, the Japanese side recognized its aggression against China in written form for the first time and expressed an apology orally to the Chinese people.

Wang described this positive attitude as an important step in the development of Sino-Japanese relations, though the apology was not in written form. China welcomes and attaches importance to Japan's active attitude towards the history issue, but the more important thing is that they act to implement these statements.

However, it is regretted that, this year, the Japanese state leader has twice visited the Yasukuni Shrine where 14 designated Class-A war criminals are honored and worshipped.

"Such actions severely hurt the feelings of the Chinese people, and can hardly be understood or accepted by the Chinese people," Wang said, noting that China hopes there will be no retrogression in Japan's position on the history issue nor any undermining of bilateral relations.

Countries should have principles to adhere to in their relations with others and honor their commitments, Wang noted.

"It can be said that the historical evolution of China-Japan relations has had a direct and far-reaching impact on the development, the rise and fall of both our two countries. Therefore, any discussion of China-Japan relations cannot evade history and any development of China-Japan relations cannot be taken out of the historical context.

Taking history as the mirror and looking to the future does not mean reckoning with old accounts, but rather refers to respecting basic historical facts and drawing useful lessons therefrom, and on that basis work to open up the future of friendship between the two countries," Wang said.

China has noticed that more and more Japanese people of insight have realized the great opportunities brought up for Japan by China's development, Wang said.

"We appreciate Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's criticism of the rhetoric that brands China's rapid development as a threat to Japan and his remarks that Japan and China should strengthen their cooperation for a win-win result," he said.

For a long time to come, mainstream bilateral relations will still be complementary and cooperative rather than competitive, Wang noted.

"Some say China is a 'world factory,' but, in fact, China, first of all, is a 'world market' -- the biggest potential market in the world," Wang said. "Its development will bring Japan and other countries enormous business opportunities."

China hopes to see China-Japan relations enter into a complementary and mutually reinforcing relationship with the renewal of Asia as a whole.

China-Japan friendship is an important factor in Asia's revitalization which in turn will provide a broader scope for China-Japan friendship, Wang noted.

(China Daily September 30, 2002)